Incidents Resulting in Possible Job Termination?

[ultrarunner]

In the world of Social Media and Freedom of Information statues what is often considered private is anything but…

About 15 years ago I responded to a weekend work burglar alarm and discovered the medical clinic had been burglarized. I called law enforcement and secured the premises and gave a statement for the officers report.

Unbeknownst to me following Monday’s newspaper carried a front page story with several quotes from me describing the break in.

Mid Monday morning I was summoned to report immediately to Admin to explain myself and I had no idea what I was supposed to explain?

After a lengthy brow beating and being told speaking to the Press could be grounds for termination I responded.

I never spoke to the Press and did not know anything about the story, plus I had filed a full incident internal report the day the event occurred.

Admin was not buying it and the Public Information Officer summoned…

I called the police department and that is how I learned Police reports are public information with certain exceptions.

Sometimes it really is no good deed goes unpunished…

 

[5030]

Police reports and Facebook have to be the 2 worst IMO.

 

[RayIN]

So, what was the outcome?

 

[BackRoad]

"...Are you accusing me of lying when I said I didn't talk to the press?..."

I think I would have "owned" HR if it happened to me...

 

[ultrarunner]

So, what was the outcome?

I would have thought a full apology was in order… instead I was told for the future not to answer questions from law enforcement and refer to the PIO or Admin…

The CEO retired not long after and the replacement has deferred to my judgement many times…

Comes down to who runs the show…

 

[Dftodd]

I've known a couple people who got fired over social media posts relating negatively to the company I work for.

One posted about a small bonus they recieved and how it should have been bigger

Me.... I'm not on Facebook or any of those places. And I just make it a habit of not posting anything on a forum that names the company I work for.

Every employee has had to take an online course that specifically relates to this subject. And nobody is to give their opinion on anything while wearing a company uniform or apparel.

That said, we had an employee that got let go after corporate got an email with a video of the employee threatening some folks while wearing a company uniform

The rest of the story, was he went over and was attempting to evict some people from a rental that his buddy owned

 

[JasperFrank]

I would have thought a full apology was in order… instead I was told for the future not to answer questions from law enforcement and refer to the PIO or Admin…

The CEO retired not long after and the replacement has deferred to my judgement many times…

Comes down to who runs the show…

Yeah, I had an issue like this with HR. They said we have to call a private medical EMT service if someone was injured or under some other serious physical distress. And its like... I'm not a doctor, how do I know what is and isn't a life threatening emergency. I'm calling 911, not your private EMT service. HR didn't like that answer.

 

[ultrarunner]

We had a young receptionist intern who was well liked with good reviews.

On her break she took a selfie at her desk captioned Lovin My Job… it terminated her employment.

She posted to her private Face Book page and in the background her monitor was on…

Zero tolerance on HIPAA and that was that… she did get a good reference and found new employment quickly…

At her age my generation didn’t have to worry about social media posts…

 

[square1]

My boss, or his boss, or others up the chain will quote my answers word for word (without crediting my contribution) but I can't answer the questions for anyone but my boss. I'm good with that

 

[Sigarms]

Comes down to who runs the show…

I would also add it comes down to the size of the company as well.

Bigger the company, more people can make mistakes and more rules to implement.

 

[5030]

Best course of action is to always keep your yap shut. Loose lips (and keyboard fingers), sink ships and possibly your job. Wife and I are on Farcebook and read the gossip (which is what it is actually), but never comment.

 

[dougtrr2]

I had an incident at work. I was told by one of our salesmen that my worker had cut himself. We worked around steel and cuts were not uncommon. But then I noticed the pool of blood and followed the trail a half a block through the warehouse and found him with blood running down his arm. I jumped in with some cloths and staunched the bleeding and got him taken care of.

Afterwards I requested that I get tested for aids. At first my boss refused. He said he helped people "all the time, got blood on him and never got tested" And then he tried to tell me I shouldn't have touched him and just stood back and called 911. I responded with "As we are sitting here calmly at your desk that sounds good, but after following a blood trail through the warehouse it is a different story."

The company did pay for the aids testing after upper management heard the story. As it turned out the only real danger from his blood was that it might have caught fire. He was a functioning alcoholic (which I didn't recognize) and his blood alcohol level (in the morning) was off the charts.

Doug in SW IA

 

[Rustyiron]

I'd be highly insulted!
Why did this 15 year old story end up on the front page?

 

[Engineer42]

I'd be highly insulted!
Why did this 15 year old story end up on the front page?

Yeah I was wondering the same thing.

 

[Hay Dude]

In the world of Social Media and Freedom of Information statues what is often considered private is anything but…

About 15 years ago I responded to a weekend work burglar alarm and discovered the medical clinic had been burglarized. I called law enforcement and secured the premises and gave a statement for the officers report.

Unbeknownst to me Monday’s newspaper carried a front page story with several quotes from me describing the break in.

Mid Monday morning I was summoned to report immediately to Admin to explain myself and I had no idea what I was supposed to explain?

After a lengthy brow beating and being told speaking to the Press could be grounds for termination I responded.

I never spoke to the Press and did not know anything about the story, plus I had filed a full incident internal report the day the event occurred.

Admin was not buying it and the Public Information Officer summoned…

I called the police department and that is how I learned Police reports are public information with certain exceptions.

Sometimes it really is no good deed goes unpunished…

Similar situation happened with me and coaching about 6 years ago.

I was in year one of coaching a high profile high school lacrosse team. In taking over a program that had been ruined by the 2 previous coaches, a lot of pressure and eyes were on me.
We won our first away game against a 2015 state championship team that was supposed to crush us. We had (2) D-1 committed players. One was my son. The other was my son’s classmate and friend. I will call him “Tommy”. They both played very well in the game, but Tommy was ejected for fighting with a player from the other team in the 2nd half. In PIAA rules, a player ejected during a game must also sit-out his next game.
In the next game, we lost. I was interviewed after game 2 by the local sports media. They asked me where Tommy was. I told him he had to sit out this game because of a PIAA violation. Next day “Tommy’s” parents (who I am friends with) were on the phone screaming at me saying I may have cost their son his scholarship to college. The high school athletic director just barely sided with me citing that Tommy’s game ejection was “public knowledge” because it is published on the PIAA website. So theoretically, his future college coach could have been informed by anyone that his recruit was suspended for 2 games.

The next time, I wasn’t quite as lucky….

After about the 6th game of the season, a very promising 6’-4” sophomore, who was gaining a LOT of notoriety from college recruiters fell sick with what they thought was walking pneumonia. I will call him “Dave”. We played games 7 through 9 without him and after game 9, again, I was interviewed by the local sports media about our game 9 loss. One of the reporters asked me why “Dave” hasn’t played. I mentioned that Dave was “out with a respiritory illness”. Next day I was asked to appear before the AD. He said he was asked to let me go. I asked what the problem was. He told me that I violated HIPPA laws by mentioning the type of illness “Dave” had. “Dave’s” parents didn’t care, liked me and asked the school to keep me. They did keep because otherwise I was doing a great job.

We went on to have a winning season and make the playoffs, but that was a rough way to start your inaugural coaching year.

There’s a lot of pitfalls to speaking on behalf of others to the public. My advice is, don’t do it.

 

[tradosaurus]

The federal employees at my work who took the Deferred Retirement Program had a bullet list of terms that could get them fired or lose their DRP benefits.
One was social media posts against the United States, such as support for terrorism.

 

[5030]

In today's society, getting butt hurt seems to always result in some sort of disciplinary action. Again, always the best bet is to keep your yap shout or just don't get involved. Thank the media for that.

Like to local Farcebook here. Only an outlet for 'concerned' citizens to post trash on others on. The line between a busy body and a concerned citizen has been blurred today.

Post social media there was none of that.

I'm on 'X', Rumble and Truth Social but I never comment on them, just read the 'mail' aka: gossip and that is it.

Lots of that on here as well, just 'cloaked' in subtleness.

 

[5030]

The federal employees at my work who took the Deferred Retirement Program had a bullet list of terms that could get them fired or lose their DRP benefits.
One was social media posts against the United States, such as support for terrorism.

Today, that can get you a trip to the barred hotel, depending on how far it goes.

It's the old 'butt hurt' philosophy, hard at work.

 

[Sigarms]

Simple rule in life now a days is anyone breaks out a phone to record anything, be calm, ask them to stop recording and if they don't, walk away.

You may look guilty walking away if you're accused of anything, but chances are you'll look 10 times worse if you stand there and argue with them.

Sometimes I really wish the people who break out their phones and record something for the sake of trying to get a response their filming would just vanish.

 

[ultrarunner]

I would also add it comes down to the size of the company as well.

Bigger the company, more people can make mistakes and more rules to implement.

We were for decades small community based but boy did things change once we were acquired by a 80,000 employee Heath Care System…

There are pluses and minuses and some things make no sense.

One thing I did learn is not a single corp person from our 2017 onboarding is still working as they have retired or moved on.

I’m closing in on 35 years so seen much and still the goto person for institutional knowledge…

Not sure what will happen when my admin and I retire…

Large corporations are more plug and play… a RN II is a RN II system wide just as techs and sterile processing…

With engineering it’s not so cut and dried as hospitals are not cookie cutter duplicates and each jurisdiction my impose slightly different rules and regs… and this is where business relationships factor the most…