I'd really appreciate some ideas.
I have had to invite one of my senior leadership team to a disciplinary meeting following some very concerning feedback/complaints from colleagues, both people she line manages and people in another department.
She went on 2 weeks sick leave rather than attend the meeting, and has now extended her sick leave by another two weeks. In the meantime she has submitted a (baseless) grievance, so we have put the disciplinary process on hold, to hear the grievance. The grievance hearing was today, and she has expressed that the relationship with the organisation is irretrievable, and she wants to negotiate a package to leave.
This is a bit of a relief in many ways, as the complaints weren't quite bad enough to constitute gross misconduct, so would have expected a performance improvement process if we'd got into the disciplinary route. There were 2 members of the team who disclosed they were considering resigning rather than continuing to work with her.
So, at the moment all that the rest of the team know is that she's on sick leave, which was a couple of weeks, extended to 4 weeks. I've let her team that she line manages know that she'll be away for another two weeks (this was before the grievance hearing), and they've responded by saying they'd like to send a card and flowers. They think she's actually sick, of course, and despite the complaints about her, they'd like to make a nice gesture.
Do I let them go ahead and send the card & flowers? It would not be at all appropriate for me to join in / chip in / add my name to the card, under the circumstances.
Or what can I say to them to steer them away from doing this?
I can't tell them anything about what's been going on behind the scenes.