Disciplinary over Tweets - I need a hand hold

[BelgianFudge]

Does anyone have any experience of facing disciplinary over getting into a twitter spat? Nothing to do with the employer, but someone has sent screenshots to them and disciplinary action has been initiated.

Sorry for scant detail but I'm understandably worried about revealing much.

@Premiumm

Arguing about Brexit shouldn't be a disciplinary offence. It's just normal mainstream political discourse, and not on behalf of the company.

Depends on the employer. If you work for the govt you're not allowed to have any public discussions about anything political.

He doesn't work for the government. But his company does hold a government contract which DH works on. So you can understand why they don't want him publicly criticising the govt.

But their social media policy doesn't say anything about expressing political views.

They may not have had the old tweets and sat on them, you can contract companies to do digital discovery and they would look on old version of the internet and see what else there might be (the way back machine is one of those) and dig up anything linked to his email address/es.

The bigger question is how they linked the old account with the new account. He surely doesn't have the accounts in his own name and linked to his personal email which includes his name in it, does he?

Anyway what are they suggesting might be the sanction?

They have produced a transcript of his old tweets - so I assume they got those somehow through a digital discovery.

But they also have a photo of the old twitter feed on a computer screen. Surely that is no longer available - I assume that photo was taken when the twitter feed was live?

I have no idea how they linked the old twitter to him. His email doesn't have his name in it, no. And his old Twitter feed didn't use his name either.

They haven't told him what the sanction might be, they've just said they are proceeding with the grievance procedure which they have stated could result in Gross Misconduct.

Unless my tweets were illegl (racist, sexist, etc) I don't think I'd want to be employed by a company that monitored my thoughts.

I would certainly not be signing any such social media policy. Has your dh taken legal advice?

It sounds like your husband has a history of being abusive online and as Twitter is essentially a public space then yes he is bringing his company into disrepute by association as he's their employee.

You don't need to have your social media accounts linked to your employer for them to dismiss you over how you conduct yourself in public.

I think the allegation of bringing the company into disrepute is fair enough. But he could argue that he himself did not create any link to his company on his twitter - so any link they have found was inadvertent and unintentional.

He was warned last year that his Facebook had some offensive posts (yes, he has form for airing his political views). His boss told him to either take down the posts, or remove any link to his employer. So he removed the link.

His boss has stated that he was satisfied that he had removed the link to the employer and considered the matter closed - so by implication, the company considered that writing offensive stuff on social media was ok as long as it wasn't directly linked to them.

@Winterpaw

It sounds like your husband has a history of being abusive online and as Twitter is essentially a public space then yes he is bringing his company into disrepute by association as he's their employee.

You don't need to have your social media accounts linked to your employer for them to dismiss you over how you conduct yourself in public.

Yes he does - he realises now how badly he has behaved.

Can they really dismiss him for being unpleasant in public?

To be clear - he has never expressed any views against any protected characteristic i.e. he's not bigoted, racist, sexist or anything.

He's just very vocal in his dislike for the government and Brexit. Most of the tweets they have produced as evidence are of him slagging off the PM etc.

It's really naive to think that a Twitter account is inaccessible because it's been suspended, that's not the case at all.

And the fact that he was permanently suspended from Twitter is not going to do him any favours when it comes to him arguing that this isn't usual behaviour and it wasn't offensive; because Twitter is not exactly known for its tight moderation guidelines.

Has he explained why he didn't reflect on what he was doing on Twitter when he was permanently suspended? It doesn't speak well to him reflecting now and not continuing the behaviour...

He also has hard evidence of some serious harassment which has been directed at him from his colleagues. He has never raised it with his boss, but it clearly shows that harassment is considered normal at his workplace, and to allege he himself has committed harassment is in my opinion absurd.

That's not likely to be a good line of defence. Firstly because he hasn't raised it, so it'll be very easy for the company to say that they've had no chance to rectify it, but also because if he alleges that harassment is ingrained there, he puts himself front and centre to be got rid of in order to turn that atmosphere around.

Has he taken any advice? A lot of the points you/he have mentioned here seem more likely to make it worse than better.

I would agree that the harassment claim seems somewhat stretched when applied to his colleagues, unless he works for/with the Government, but he has clearly displayed harassing behaviour on an ongoing basis as he's been banned from Twitter once and reported a second time.

And he has bought his company into disrepute because however it happened, a random person that he offended was able to find his employer.

Have they suggested what the outcome of this may be?

Good grief. Aren't you fed up with your husband behaving like a fool on the internet? He's been warned before yet still carries on with this nonsense. Now his job is at risk because of it. I would be livid.

And yet his employer is saying his colleagues could feel 'harrassed' by reading his political views on Twitter.

They themselves have verbally harrassed him at work, and he has not retaliated.

His boss has stated that he was satisfied that he had removed the link to the employer and considered the matter closed - so by implication, the company considered that writing offensive stuff on social media was ok as long as it wasn't directly linked to them.

I wouldn't argue that, either. It doesn't suggest that they're okay with offensive things being written - it suggests they're treating Facebook differently to Twitter, which makes sense due to standard use patterns.

But introducing that adds another string against your DH... He's already been warned about what he was posting on Facebook, as well as having been banned from Twitter.

Your DH sounds like a bit of an idiot. Warned at work over FB, banned from twitter and now facing disciplinary?

@SendMeHome

It's really naive to think that a Twitter account is inaccessible because it's been suspended, that's not the case at all.

And the fact that he was permanently suspended from Twitter is not going to do him any favours when it comes to him arguing that this isn't usual behaviour and it wasn't offensive; because Twitter is not exactly known for its tight moderation guidelines.

Has he explained why he didn't reflect on what he was doing on Twitter when he was permanently suspended? It doesn't speak well to him reflecting now and not continuing the behaviour...

He also has hard evidence of some serious harassment which has been directed at him from his colleagues. He has never raised it with his boss, but it clearly shows that harassment is considered normal at his workplace, and to allege he himself has committed harassment is in my opinion absurd.

That's not likely to be a good line of defence. Firstly because he hasn't raised it, so it'll be very easy for the company to say that they've had no chance to rectify it, but also because if he alleges that harassment is ingrained there, he puts himself front and centre to be got rid of in order to turn that atmosphere around.

Has he taken any advice? A lot of the points you/he have mentioned here seem more likely to make it worse than better.

I would agree that the harassment claim seems somewhat stretched when applied to his colleagues, unless he works for/with the Government, but he has clearly displayed harassing behaviour on an ongoing basis as he's been banned from Twitter once and reported a second time.

And he has bought his company into disrepute because however it happened, a random person that he offended was able to find his employer.

Have they suggested what the outcome of this may be?

Yes he is taking legal advice. And you're right - he didn't report the harrassment, so they couldn't rectify it.

However, one incident related to harrassment by his boss - which he did raise. His boss claimed in his interview that he had had to have a word with DH recently about his behaviour - when in fact the meeting he refers to was called by DH in relation to his boss' harrassment of him. We have email evidence of this.

Yes he is an idiot to have continued his Twitter behaviour when it was clear it was inappropriate. He knows this and has expressed sincere regret and apologised to the company. It will never happen again.

@Aquamarine1029

Good grief. Aren't you fed up with your husband behaving like a fool on the internet? He's been warned before yet still carries on with this nonsense. Now his job is at risk because of it. I would be livid.

I am beyond livid.

I warned him repeatedly not to do it.

He is mortified.

He is mentally unwell, and is in therapy. He has struggled mentally with the lockdowns, and this was his outlet. He knows he was wrong.

@SendMeHome

His boss has stated that he was satisfied that he had removed the link to the employer and considered the matter closed - so by implication, the company considered that writing offensive stuff on social media was ok as long as it wasn't directly linked to them.

I wouldn't argue that, either. It doesn't suggest that they're okay with offensive things being written - it suggests they're treating Facebook differently to Twitter, which makes sense due to standard use patterns.

But introducing that adds another string against your DH... He's already been warned about what he was posting on Facebook, as well as having been banned from Twitter.

That is true. His boss has already introduced it to the evidence.

The FB incident was before the Twitter stuff. He naively assumed he could be more anonymous on Twitter.

OP "He naively assumed he could be more anonymous on Twitter."

But from what you are saying, they linked his Twitter to him so he's putting real information on Twitter?

He hasn't posted anything about his work. But his employer has google searched his name and links to his company come up from other external websites

I don't think he should lose his job or anything but he needs to use social media extremely carefully.

I think it's ridiculous to say "someone could read his personal views and be upset by them". No employer should look so deep into the lives of their staff.

@BelgianFudge

He hasn't posted anything about his work. But his employer has google searched his name and links to his company come up from other external websites

Sorry, was that a reply to me?

He shouldn't use his real name on social media, that's a path to disaster.

I agree - he's been an absolute dick head and they're right to say he has brought them into disrepute.

The allegation of harrassment is utterly ridiculous. They said his colleagues, who may hold differing political views, might read his twitter and be offended by it. They have enquires with his colleagues, some have said they aren't aware of his twitter, one said they didn't like it so they stopped following him on twitter. There are no allegations from anyone to support this harrassment theory. Even his boss supported him in saying he doesn't air his views at work.

This is a really big mess, and it's good that he's getting advice...

If you drum this down to the facts, he is easily linkable to his company (in many ways - nothing on the internet is ever really deleted, so his old association to his employer on Facebook would be findable if you wanted to dig it out, he tagged his employer, Google links him to his employer...) and he has a history of posting offensive political content on social media.

He was warned about Facebook and told to remove the link or stop posting, and he removed the link. Case closed.

He was banned from Twitter, which backs up the companies assertion that whatever he was tweeting was offensive, rather than just a difference of political opinion.

And now he's been reported to his employer for more tweets, albeit fairly mild ones if the worst that he said was calling someone a dickhead.

He is mentally unwell, and is in therapy. He has struggled mentally with the lockdowns, and this was his outlet. He knows he was wrong.

Has this been the case throughout? His Facebook and previous Twitter activity looks like it will have been before lockdown? If he can medically evidence this, it may be taken into account, although it's anyone's guess how much good it'll do.

Yes he is an idiot to have continued his Twitter behaviour when it was clear it was inappropriate. He knows this and has expressed sincere regret and apologised to the company. It will never happen again.

This is what I'd be focusing on. I'd let the rest go in favour of finding a way to convince the company that despite this being his third known offence, he isn't a ticking timebomb waiting for this to happen again. That won't be easy, but if he's genuinely stopped, it's worth a shot.

Has he got another outlet now?

I'd be cautious about suggesting he'll delete social media, but if that's a path he's going down, he could mention that.

He's going to need to show that he is now aware that because of his position, whether that's seniority or an unusual job, he is easily linked to his company; and he needs to behave like that. And he also needs to show that he understands how inappropriate this was.

He may well be able to push to have a final warning, although I'd expect that he'd be a million times out the door if anything like this comes to light again.

But follow the legal advice that he's got, if he's been open and honest with them, because they know you/him/the company/the real contents of the posts, and I'm just going off what you can share here, and a lot of experience doing disciplinaries and appeals for social media behaviour (Joys of a law degree and history working at big social media companies!)

@BelgianFudge

To be clear - he has never expressed any views against any protected characteristic i.e. he's not bigoted, racist, sexist or anything.

He's just very vocal in his dislike for the government and Brexit. Most of the tweets they have produced as evidence are of him slagging off the PM etc.

I would think quite highly of anyone airing those kind of views.

Are you not allowed to have a political opinion nowadays?