Extramarital affair among co-workers

jeff city

We have an employee who is going through a divorce. She told us her estranged husband has been harassing her. Yesterday the husband called us and told us his wife is doing drugs and having an affair with a co-worker. The co-worker he named works in a different area, and neither employee supervises the other. Our initial reaction was to thank him for the info, but do nothing. We had heard nothing about an alleged affair before this.
As far as the drugs, this is an office and, while we have a drug free workplace, we do not conduct drug tests.
Any input would be appreciated.

Gillian3

Your initial reaction is the proper one. Maybe this person is just trying to create problems - and saying someone is on drugs is a good way to do that.

Don D

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 06-23-04 AT 06:49PM (CST)[/font][br][br]I think most of the anonymous calls I've gotten like this are from spouses, soon-to-be-exes, exes or girlfriends. And I think 100% of the calls I have gotten like the one you got were probably vindictive and baseless. None of them should be acted upon.

Last month I got a call from a woman who said she was an agent with the MS Bureau of Narcotics. She left her number for me to return the call. I did. She told me 'John' tested positive for cocaine and she is required to verify his employment. I told her to jump in the damned lake because if they had such information, they would surely know where he works. She said the temp agency who referred him tipped them that he was positive. I asked for her badge number and she didn't know what I meant. I asked for her supervisor's name and she hung up. I walked out into the factory, found him and asked him if he recognized the telephone number. He said it was his baby's mother's phone number. Go figure.

jake48

Don, that last call may have been from my ex-wife...

LarryC

Our drug policy includes reasonable cause testing. An anonymous or vindictive phone call is not reasonable cause.

ritaanz

Put this call in the "I got a message from an idiot" category. It's trash and should be treated accordingly.

zen

First time posting on the forum - I don't mean to butt in, but I think that your company needs to be aware of the potential for workplace violence in this situation. If this ee's soon-to-be-ex has no qualms calling and making accusations, and the ee has indicated that he has been harassing her prior to his call, you need to seriously consider that this guy is "not right" and may escalate his harassment to violence. He's already tried to involve your company - what's to keep him from acting out on your property?

Just a thought...

TN HR

Zen, welcome. You make a good point, however, you have to apply your expoerience, gut feeling, etc into these scenarios. We just had this discussion not too long ago after an HR organization luncheon where we discussed workplace violence, etc.

Unfortunately, you can potentially apply this to just about any unpleasant HR situation.

Use your best judgement. Sometimes you have to follow your gut instinct on these things but also know when not to react.

Rockie

I wouldn't put much credence in these type of calls - obviously from a disgruntled "whatever". I would advise the employee that I did receive the call and let him or her know what's going on and someone is trying to make trouble for them.

I had a call like this once from a spouse of a woman that worked for us. He claimed that she and a co-worker were having an affair and doing drugs. I told him I couldn't do a thing about their behavior unless it was conducted on the job or interferred with their jobs.

I did advise both of them I had this conversation with someone purporting to be the female's husband just to let them know what lengths this person was going to to "get back" at them.

WT

What we need to look for is a pattern of harassment and esculation. We had a soon to be ex who first made phone calls and then came to the workplace and had an argument with the spouse. There was no violence of any kind and I was told after the fact. I sent a letter to this individual's attorney and stated clearly that this was part of a classic pattern and the employer had no intention of going down that road. This individual was being put on notice that they were not wanted at the workplace by the employer. Thus, if the ex came back to the workplace, they would be arrested and we would press charges to the fullest extent of the law whether the spouse at work wanted this done or not. The attorney was well able to understand our intention and the effect on his client's position in the divorce. We never saw that person again.

Don D

"while we have a drug free workplace, we do not conduct drug tests."

Just an errant sidebar....But, if you don't have one, how do you know you have the other?