A well liked colleague at work has been suspended, and it has really upset us all as they were close friends and we feel it was unfair and just based on the fact his new manager does not like him.
The problem is that we have all been asked not to contact him in an official email from HR.
A few of us have been in contact outside work with him to offer moral support, and we have put a joint grievance in against the manager who suspended him.
My worry is that we may get in trouble for being in contact with him due to the email we initially received about not having contact as the grievance we submitted has been handed over to an external legal team.
Will we get in trouble for contact outside work with him, and what will happen to us if this is discovered which I'm worried it will be, as I stupidly sent a linkedin request to him which I later found out was linked to his work email which I'm guessing the new manager has access to. I havent asked the new manager if he has seen this for obvious reasons and he hasnt mentioned it to me, so I'm hoping he's missed it or it didn't go through to the work email after all.