Employee Talk
HR Surprise
25 Posts
We recently had (and still have) an employee who was upset with her supervisor tell a prospective employee not to take a job with us. In doing so, she told several untruths about her experience within the department. (She has since transfered to another department, but still has contact with staff at her previous site.) I maintain this is highly unprofessional conduct and should be addressed by her new supervisor. However, her new supervisor believes that employees have a right to say what they want, and that we, as employers, cannot discipline for "talking". (The current supervisor sides with the employee because she did not like the other supervisor either - and granted, he is difficult, but that has already been addressed.) This "talking" however, could have cost us a good employee had she decided to take the advice (she didn't,thank goodness). Then last week I received another report that this same employee is still bad-mouthing her previous department. I feel there's got to be something we can do, but can't find a specific precedent to cite to back up my 'feeling'. Can anyone help???
Comments
I suspect it is the former. Even though there is another supervisor who seems to support this employee, there doesn't appear to be the use of any formal process, such as a grievance, in which the employee is expressing her dissatisfaction with the first supervisor. What you pointed out was that she told another individual, a propsective employee, about her feelings against the first supervisor. That may or may not have caused the prospective employee to change his or her mind. If it did, you could make a case that the employee's "gripe" interfered with work. But, it seems to me that if the prospective employee changed his or her mind after going thourgh the selection process just by hearing one employee, that person was probably really not interested in the job (I assume the person didn't contact anyone at the company to allay her concerns about what she heard).
Employee personal griping, obviously occurs with just about every employer, at some time or other. But I think if you can establish that this employee convinced an actual candidate NOT to join the company, you can at least counsel the employee. Do you have anything in your policy manual about not making false or derogatory statements about managers, supervisors, and co-workers? If you do, you may be able to impose a disciplinary action. If you don't, then you need to put the employee on "notice" about acceptable behavior. If you don't have a policy statement along these lines, you should take a look at developing one; one that is consistent with keeping it out of "concerted activity" factors. Take look at Gear v. NLRB 330 F2d 683 on this issue.
We do have a grievance procedure - but the employee chose to transfer rather than file. The prospective employee did go to the office manager - that's how we found out what was being said. We do not have a policy on false or derogatory statements (do you know where I can get a "sample"?). I tried to find the case you cited - Gear v. NLRB - but was unable to find it....so, any suggestions as to where to access it on-line?
It sounds like there's not too much we can do except put her "on notice"....
Employees are hired to do their work, and although everyone has a right to air their feelings, and this is human nature, work is for work, and excessive "airing" must be addressed or they will take advantage, and a problem that could have been nipped in the bud will grow into a huge future problem.
Ana
When engaged in a concerted activity, an employee has some leeway to be a little rude or use bad language. Here are some links that might help, or use the search box at left to look for the word concerted.
[url]http://www.hrhero.com/q&a/nlrb.shtml[/url]
[url]http://www.hrhero.com/national/nlrb.shtml[/url]
James Sokolowski
Senior Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers