Daughter facing disciplinary over social media post

[user89066511]

My daughter works in retail in a supermarket. During lockdown at the beginning of the year someone posted on her timeline asking how she was and saying how rubbish the year was. She replied life is pretty normal for me working in supermarket but the customers are more annoying than ever.
Someone has reported the post and she now faces disciplinary action. Can anyone give any advice? She thinks that the company are been unreasonable but I know some companies are very strict on social media posts.

This happened to a friend of mine. They didn’t have a social media policy so didn’t have a leg to stand on.

Look lockdown was hard for everyone but especially those in key worker roles. If she’s on a checkout. Just apologise, say she was so concerned about getting covid from customers, it was a very stressful time and she would never think of doing that normally. She will keep her job but the company has to go thru their procedure

Sackable offence in most places

She’s brought her company into disrepute

Hopefully she won’t get sacked. She might do though if she says I think you’re being unreasonable about this

Grovel grovel grovel!

@Iusedtoliveinsanfrancisco

Look lockdown was hard for everyone but especially those in key worker roles. If she’s on a checkout. Just apologise, say she was so concerned about getting covid from customers, it was a very stressful time and she would never think of doing that normally. She will keep her job but the company has to go thru their procedure

Not true

If the contract states about social Merida. She’s in trouble. Saying she will be fine isn’t good advice.

She needs to ask for a copy of the social media policy so that she can see how in what way has she infringed upon it.

She needs to ask for a copy of the disciplinary policy to make sure that it is followed properly.

She will be allowed to take a colleague, union rep or solicitor with her to any formal meeting in the process. Advise her to do this.

She can call ACAS for free for advice www.acas.org.uk/contact

The fact that she thinks the company are being unreasonable to not want her sharing her poor opinion of their customers does not bode well. She really needs a reality check and it sounds like she is getting a hard one

Totally agree, especially as she was indiscreet enough to post the comment on her profile

Hopefully she'll resist a "for god's sake!!" attitude and hopefully they'll be lenient if it's the first time, but better she learns the lesson now before it's about something even more serious

Yeah. Sackable in my job. I don’t mention my employer at all.

Is she a member of a Union? If so she should talk to them now.

Was she issued with a copy of or link to a SM Policy when she was contracted or at any time before she posted the comment? If not they will probably have difficulty sacking her.

Have they given her a full copy of the disciplinary policies, and explained what will happen? Are they acting within those policies? (they should).

But she needs to cop on and realise that in the heat of the moment, thinking she was just in a chat with a mate, she actually publicly dissed her employers customers. Whereas that might feel reasonable to HER, as the target of the customers' behaviour, is one thing. But the lack of professionalism in complaining about the customers on a public forum is entirely different from the company's pov. She really really needs to understand that. An acknowledgement of that and a massive apology might even head off the formal procedure.

If not - she should pay attention to the points above and raise these, as appropriate, in her defence.

@Datingandnoideahowto

Yeah. Sackable in my job. I don’t mention my employer at all.

It was the same where I last worked..(travel industry)

You might just get away with slapped wrists if you grumbled a little bit about the company, but if you were caught out bad mouthing the customers on-line (including on supposedly private WhatsApp groups) you would have been out of the company so quickly the door wouldn’t have hit your backside as you were on your way out.

Rightly or wrongly she needs to grovel!
Any whiff of attitude and she'll be out!
Hopefully a sincere sounding apology will mean she can keep her job.
Bit daft putting that comment where everyone can see it!!

I disagree with many (who read like they'd like to put OP's daughter in the stocks), and don't like this creeping Americanisation of employment in the UK.
OP wrote:
She replied life is pretty normal for me working in supermarket but the customers are more annoying than ever.

Which by many accounts was true for people working in retail during the start of lockdown. What's wrong with stating the truth, or are now supposed to be so servile and beholden to our employers that they can dictate how with live out lives outside of work?

It's not being beholden to our employers, it's about being disrespectful to the customers, if you work in a customer facing role and you find them even more annoying than they usually are then perhaps it's not the place for you. Who says it's the truth, it's her opinion and it's very negative.

I also think the issue here is she thinks the company is being unreasonable. Which means she thinks it’s perfectly reasonable to go on line and publicly slag off her customers.

If she doesn’t understand why it’s an issue for th company for a customer facing employee to do this, then she’s probably not best suited to a customer facing role.

I hope she will be OK @user89066511 But yeah, saying shit like on social media is frowned upon massively. As has been said, people have been sacked for less. In my experience, the employee is more likely to be sacked for something like this, if they are not hugely popular with the employer (maybe flakey/bad timekeeping/bit lazy,) and it's a good excuse to get rid.

I know someone who (nearly 2 years ago,) posted a photo of his cat sitting on the toilet in the bathroom (the lid was down, but he just thought it looked funny.) He worked for a certain chain of hotels, and at the side of the cat was a small towel rail, with a towel hanging off it. A towel that he had taken (stolen) from the hotel.

The photo was copied by someone, (he never discovered who,) and sent on to the hotel manager. He was sacked for theft. A single towel that would have cost less than a fiver to buy, and he stole it and took it home, and it cost him his job. He was 57, and had been in the job for 25 years. I think it cost him his works pension too.

He has no skills or qualifications, and he is in his late 50s. That, combined with the Covid pandemic (which started just 3 months after he was sacked,) means he is still unemployed, nearly 2 years on.

As I say, be VERY careful what you put on social media!

goodness what a silly thing to post! I think the company are being quite reasonable but hopefully she won't lose her job over it.

@Ifailed

Which by many accounts was true for people working in retail during the start of lockdown. What's wrong with stating the truth, or are now supposed to be so servile and beholden to our employers that they can dictate how with live out lives outside of work?

What is wrong with stating 'the truth' on social media ??? (Well her truth!)

It will get you the SACK that is what is 'wrong' with it.

You cannot do this shit. You simply can't!

As @DogsSausages said

It's not being beholden to our employers, it's about being disrespectful to the customers, if you work in a customer facing role and you find them even more annoying than they usually are then perhaps it's not the place for you. Who says it's the truth, it's her opinion and it's very negative.

It's horribly disrespectful to the customers, most customers are NOT horrible, and as the above poster said (and I did too,) this is the OP's daughter's 'truth' and is not 'fact-based.'

@godmum56

goodness what a silly thing to post! I think the company are being quite reasonable but hopefully she won't lose her job over it.

Well yeah, it was stupid to post it, but I hope the lass doesn't lose her job.

As I said, though, if her employer is not keen on her, they will get rid. It will be the perfect excuse.

Who says it's the truth, it's her opinion and it's very negative.

British Retail Consortium, for a start, and they represent the employers:

BRC boss Helen Dickinson OBE said: "Will retail workers in England and Wales ever receive the protection they deserve? Despite clear evidence showing the escalation of violence and abuse against retail workers, the government has time and time again chosen not to act.

The Scottish Government has already passed The Protection of Workers Bill, to deal with a rise in abuse towards retail workers.

There are plenty of news articles about the rise in problems, especially since lockdown.

Why is being truthful being negative?

@Ifailed

I disagree with many (who read like they'd like to put OP's daughter in the stocks), and don't like this creeping Americanisation of employment in the UK. OP wrote: She replied life is pretty normal for me working in supermarket but the customers are more annoying than ever.

Which by many accounts was true for people working in retail during the start of lockdown. What's wrong with stating the truth, or are now supposed to be so servile and beholden to our employers that they can dictate how with live out lives outside of work?

The phrase 'more annoying than ever' suggests that she finds customers annoying even without Covid. That's not going to go down well.

Hmmmm. The towel story sounds like one of the subplots of 'Midnight Run'. But maybe it's true.

I don't think it was a very good idea. At all. And I don't think she should take a trace of attitude into the meeting. But there's a difference between recounting a specific incident of a particular (and possibly identifiable) customer being a dick, and a kind of general 'My job would be ok if it weren't for the customers . . . '

People are rude to supermarket workers. And waitresses. And shop assistants. Any low-discretion job. That's 'my truth', too. And it's a fact.

That's not the same thing at all, this is like a nurse saying they still work on the same ward but the patients are even more annoying than ever. That wouldnt be acceptable either.

Yes I think its pretty standard that you will get in a lot of trouble if you slag off your employer, their customers or bring them into disrepute on social media. Your DD needs to wise up and say sorry.

What's not the same thing at all? Is that directed at me?

In fact, your example is bogus. Nurses are (mostly) in the public sector, and always in the caring profession. They have a duty of care and should be held to a higher standard. Their 'clients', even when annoying, are in pain and distress. No-one is in pain and distress when rudely demanding to know why the bin bags have moved from aisle 12, or why they don't have any brogues left in their size.

The towel story sounds like one of the subplots of 'Midnight Run'. But maybe it's true.

The towel story is certainly credible and I’d certainly be extra extra careful with images in the context of social media and work.

I know of a couple of sackings where the (inadvertent) appearance of company property in on line images all added to the company’s case against the individuals.

Lobo, no sorry it wasnt directed at you, it was in response to the post about violence and abuse towards retail staff, which is obviously unacceptable.