Jobs & Education3 mins ago
Letter home from boss!
11 Answers
OMG what a horribel weekend I've had, as I woke up saturday morning to find a letter from my boss about my "inappropriate behaviour!".
Let me explain; Every month at my work we get a magazine out with paycheck, about employees and the company. I always read this at work, which most do. Anyway this month they had a Christmas wordsearch in it. Said the quickest person to do it and email secret message to communications team won a load of chocolate. I was doing it in my office as were most of department.
Then my boss walked in and wasn't happy. He just snapped if need work to do then speak to line manager!
I was bit annoyed with myself at time and think shouldn't have been doing it, but then 10mins later they announced on intranet who had won it! Anyway my boss has just wrote a short letter to say as discussed(which wasn't a discussion anyway!) he does not tolerate inappropriate behaviour in ever improving business.
I don't know what to do thow.!?
I dont know if he realised it was staff magazine so was thinking i should email to explain that? and also state that communications should either say to do be done out of work but by looks of it expected it to be done at work?
I just worry that that letter has been put on my file and anyone reading it doesn't know what i was doing, plus they are making redundancies so now I think i'm top of list to go!!
Let me explain; Every month at my work we get a magazine out with paycheck, about employees and the company. I always read this at work, which most do. Anyway this month they had a Christmas wordsearch in it. Said the quickest person to do it and email secret message to communications team won a load of chocolate. I was doing it in my office as were most of department.
Then my boss walked in and wasn't happy. He just snapped if need work to do then speak to line manager!
I was bit annoyed with myself at time and think shouldn't have been doing it, but then 10mins later they announced on intranet who had won it! Anyway my boss has just wrote a short letter to say as discussed(which wasn't a discussion anyway!) he does not tolerate inappropriate behaviour in ever improving business.
I don't know what to do thow.!?
I dont know if he realised it was staff magazine so was thinking i should email to explain that? and also state that communications should either say to do be done out of work but by looks of it expected it to be done at work?
I just worry that that letter has been put on my file and anyone reading it doesn't know what i was doing, plus they are making redundancies so now I think i'm top of list to go!!
Answers
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Write him a letter explaining the following.
Tell him it was a competition in a staff magazine that was based on submitting the speediest entry and that obviously others were doing the same as the competition was won only ten minutes later.
Tell him that you think his letter was unfair and that you would like a meeting with him and someone from the HR department to discuss this because you do not want his letter to remain on your personnel file.
Send a copy of this letter to HR.
Ask to have a quiet word with him. Hand him the letter and explain verbally what it contains. Do it quietly and confidently.
Tell him it was a competition in a staff magazine that was based on submitting the speediest entry and that obviously others were doing the same as the competition was won only ten minutes later.
Tell him that you think his letter was unfair and that you would like a meeting with him and someone from the HR department to discuss this because you do not want his letter to remain on your personnel file.
Send a copy of this letter to HR.
Ask to have a quiet word with him. Hand him the letter and explain verbally what it contains. Do it quietly and confidently.
Put the question to him that if people weren't supposed to be reading this magazine and/or doing said wordsearch in work time, then why was the winner announced before the end of the working day? Surely they must have been doing it in their work time then? So why were they allowed to do it and not you?
Classic case of bullying, I'd say, and probably because he was peed off at not being able to do it himself.
Do you have a personnel/HR department you could talk it through with?
Classic case of bullying, I'd say, and probably because he was peed off at not being able to do it himself.
Do you have a personnel/HR department you could talk it through with?
Plus: was the letter only sent to or was it sent to everyone who was doing the quiz? If everyone has been snapped at, this is reflecting more on the boss than on the team, who is clearly losing his/her grip on things. If you have been singled out, you need to take this up with your boss, HR and your union rep.
Depending on the type of organisation you are in, it might be worth contacting whoever sends out the newsletter and innocently describing the trouble it has landed you in. Ask them to please make it very clear that it is not to be engaged with during work time. This might then lead to a word being had with your boss, especially if the newsletter is seen as an important arm of 'corporate mesaage'.
Also, how are your break times arranged? Do you move away from your workstation every couple of hours or is it usual to take your breaks at your desk? If the latter, how did your boss know you were not on your break when doing the quiz? Another matter to discuss with HR.
At the end of the day it is up to the firm to enforce good management practice and if they don't, or if they actually think this is good practice, then there is not a lot you can do.
Depending on the type of organisation you are in, it might be worth contacting whoever sends out the newsletter and innocently describing the trouble it has landed you in. Ask them to please make it very clear that it is not to be engaged with during work time. This might then lead to a word being had with your boss, especially if the newsletter is seen as an important arm of 'corporate mesaage'.
Also, how are your break times arranged? Do you move away from your workstation every couple of hours or is it usual to take your breaks at your desk? If the latter, how did your boss know you were not on your break when doing the quiz? Another matter to discuss with HR.
At the end of the day it is up to the firm to enforce good management practice and if they don't, or if they actually think this is good practice, then there is not a lot you can do.
Thank you for all your answers-many were helpful.
I found out from my line manager that this letter wasn't going on HR file and no one else knows about.
However I wrote him a letter back explaining cricumstances so hope that clears up the matter.
And No after all that I didn't even win the chocolate!
I found out from my line manager that this letter wasn't going on HR file and no one else knows about.
However I wrote him a letter back explaining cricumstances so hope that clears up the matter.
And No after all that I didn't even win the chocolate!
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