jase555

SORTED

no more scooby from work, but get to live another day !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ProperCharlie

seems like they were looking to find something, if you get what i mean. unfortunately, most companies have pretty stringent anti-**** rules, and will probably take this to mean using your PC to aquire ****, even if they don't find any actual images on your disc. I would expect a final written warning at the least, sorry to say it.


was the movie any good, btw? and can i burrow it?

OllyK

IIRC your e-mail cannot just be checked on a whim. They should have recorded with HR that they had concerns about what you were up to so that it is logged, they can then have a look to check if the concerns are founded or not and then take things from there. At what stage they need notify you about things I am not sure. If your manager has just done this off his own back without notifying anybody else then I would think you are in a reasonably strong position.

Having been caught however, they will be justified in wanting to check there is nothing illeagal on your machine (we had a nasty one at work a while back where a former employee was convicted of having KP images at home. They had left a while back but there was then a mad panic checking e-mails and so on to make sure the company was not comprimised if he had been up to anything at work).

I would see what the next stage is, but get some advice off you HR / Legal people at work or a Union if you are a member, faling that check with the Citizen's Advice Bureau

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

you have been there a long time mate, it is counted as gross misconduct, and they can and probably will take you down the discaplinary road. you ahve rights though mate, does the company you work for have any representatives of a trade union? if not goto the cab "citizens advice bereau" and get the information. unfortunatly I must tell you that they can sack you, as, as far they will be concerned it is written down somewhere and you will have presumably agreed to it, that you understand that work e-mail id for internal correspondance only and not for personal use. "ie trading" usual wording.

when the discaplinary comes you have rights, you can even have solicitor there to advise you of your rights, and if you believe that you havent been given enough time etc, you can ask for the hearing to be adjourned to a mutually suitable time, think you can do that a few times if i remember right..

ile get the info from work for you today mate, pop me a pm with your e-mail.

jamo

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

They're probably checking whether you've been downloading **** in company time, stuff like that.

RichWalk

If you & your boss are constructive enough to sit down and address the 'real issues' at stake, you may get through this, on the other hand if he wants you out, you are on 'sticky ground' here- if by 'adult' you mean pornography, then I'd me getting some independant advise (professionally) to define the clause 'within reason' far to vague so an industrial tribunal may be worth pursueing- however if you win your work life will prob' get worse rather than better- hence my opening statement.

Good Luck

Rich

Scooby96

Doesnt matter if you're the only one being checked. If you've been emailing 'deals' or discussing deals using company email carrying the company name then you could be deep in the brown stuff. This happened to me although I was receiving emails via ebay - that was enough to deem is gross misconduct (as well as my scoobynet viewing) and I'm now out of work!

Pornographic dvd covers add more weight to the gross misconduct charge as would the descriptive text!

Have they presented you with their evidence yet, if they have and they havent stumbled accross the dvd covers then keep scthumm about them.

They should also present you with minutes from your brief meeting - check these carefully for errors as this can help you later down the line. Unfortunately my ex employers were fastidious and it all went **** up after having nearly three weeks off on full pay, however you do still have the option to resign even after being dismissed. This is the route I took, they paid me my 1 months notice on top of the 3 weeks off plus my annual bonus (11%) so not all bad.

Since being at home I havent felt this good in ages, no stress, no sitting in traffic every morning / evening however I do have a cashflow problem looming although this is also in hand (watch this space so to speak!).

Good luck.

ps If you have a union or know a union rep get in contact with them asap.

Scooby96

Just to add I wsnt dealing in **** - just a couple of mobile phones!

It was more my Scoobynet usage they didnt like!

Nick

You have a big problem with the DVD images on the office computer. I strongly suggest that you see a solicitor immediately, don't mess around with this. This could affect your future career.

Depending on the images, remember that your employer may make a police complaint, in which case your home pc will be checked.

ProperCharlie

The police will only bve interested if it is KP or something else pretty extreme - remember that you can legally view "****" on every cable/satelite tv in the country now, so the police aren't gonna be running around after someone with a couple of copies of debbie does dallas

S96 - so were you basically done for wasting compnay time? sorry for being nosey, but it does seem a bit harsh to me - i would have thought it would be dealt with by a slap on the wrist and "don't do it again" type deal.

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

I got suspended and fired from my last job for an email that someone sent me, I forwarded it on to someone else without looking at it my self because I new it was a joke.

The first thing I knew about it was being hauled up infront of the UT director nd suspended pending an investigation. The person I sent it to had miss addressed it and forwarded it on to our entire australian distribution list.

I was upfront about it and said yes I did it but was not sure what was in it as I had not yet seen it due to being busy.

I had a hearing and was fired then had an appeal hearing and was still fired, I took it up with the CAB and then industrial tribuneral and won the case.

I was lter informed by my old boss that I was on a no win situation as the MD wanted rid of me for some reason, he didn't like all the changes I had made to improve the company so this was the best way to get me out.

Good luck with whatever you do but remember I was 100% honest throughout the entire thing and still got fired, so maybe honesty is not the best policy.

Scooby96

PC - it transpired that my 'colleague' (also in the **** up to her eyeballs for other stuff) grassed me up as she was given access to my email whilst I was off sick in December. Apparently she was "flabbergasted" at the number of personal emails I had (some of them between my partner and I marked P&C!!!).

Anyway I'm much happier and got my fingers in a few pies....

JoanUK300

This happened to a fella at hubbys work too, although the 'Data Protection Act' was involved. He was suspended while further investigations took place.(took 6 months) Like you, he had downloaded a folder (not a wise move!) and this was found by the people in IB (investigation bureau).

He is on probation for two years after a LOT of begging.....
At the end of the day he was using company time, company pc's and the emails were carrying the company logo.............

Sorry to say but prepare for the worst then anything better than that will be a bonus!!!

Tip for the future..keep personal and business lives separate........saves any aggro in the long run.
GOOD LUCK ANYWAY....hope they are reasonable with you

pbee

check your t%c's of the contacts of employment and office equipment use, unless the company is very clued up they will have missed that for them to legally read your personal email they need your written permission to do so. upfront, and allowing any personal email with a reasonable clause is a white wash as one person reasonables is anothers unreasonable. This needs to be seperate from the main t&c's.

if they terminate you, get a good employment solicitor the company should offer to pay for this, and start taking steps. everyone I know who has had to go through this has either been reinstated or compensated. of the 3 cases i can recollect there is always something else underlying that causes these things to happen.

Spoon

Yeh, an insatiable boner.

OllyK

Time for anybody that uses a PC at work to get hold of some decent encryption software! seNTry is well worth a look for £20 or so!

Scooby96

jase - my employers started their investigation on me on the 19th December and it took them approx a month to investigate my C: U: email and internet usage. Total data exceeded 1GB - internet proxy logs were 'extensive'.

Of the 623 employees in Tunbridge Wells I was ranked 1st, 4th, 5th and 623rd most heavy internet user during the period of investigation (including the week I was off sick hence being 623rd!).

Come out fighting though, dont ist back.

My employers had a PC usage form to back up their case - strangely signed by me on the 19th Dec, no-one else got a form to sign so sounds like a bit of a stitch up, although I dont deny my over usage.

Gridlock Mikey

What is the world coming to? People sniffing about in ya e-mails. Rightly or wrongly an employer shouldn't be "spying" for illegal e-mails. They should have a policy which states the type of thing a company will consider in appropriate also state how often a search is done and what the consequences are.

I remember a previous employer trying to do me because I was texting too much. I found out that the employer had actually phoned the number to ascertain if the call was of a business nature.
It was my MUM!! Needless to say I went ballistic. If i am doing my job to the best of my abilities and i am not jeopordising the company, they why can't i use 30 seconds to reply to a text or e-mail.
I just think it's Big brother mentality being wielded by in-experienced ******

After 12 years service, i'd be tempted to tell 'em to "Do one!"

Mikey

JoanUK300

turn the tables round........

If work rang you in 'out of hours' to talk to you, most people would get the hump........I know I do!!!
So why should you expect your employers to use YOUR time in their hours........does that make sense?????

Spoon

Gridders- That's just the issue though, can everybody do their work properly whilst spending copius amounts of time on such things as personal phonecalls, texts,emails and surfing the net?

In your case it was a few texts but in other cases it is a large part of the normal working day and who's paying for it, the company. This after all said and done is their primary interest lets face it. Of course companies have an interest in distancing themselves from unsavoury activities but nobody is actually ever going to believe it's something the company as a whole is involved in.


That's true of every authority in this country nowadays.

What, one his recommended adult titles?

GaryCat

The general rule is to never send an email containing content that you wouldn't put on company headed paper and send to all your competitors.

G.

Spoon

Yes I can just see it.

*AB Jones-Your family Dentist for all your deep throat needs.*

beemerboy

got to add, this in unfortunate.
i have spent most of my last 6 years downloading mp3's and surfing the web.
ended up getting bored with the job, and now work for myself.

dont get me wrong, i used to put plenty of hours in, and get all my work done first, however, i was just plain bored!!!

not much help i guess..

- the funny thing is, here i am posting in my own time!!!!

Hope it all works out ok.
BB

Nick

See the solicitor now. Don't say anything or sign anything without a solicitor. When your future career is at stake - do it right. In the worst case & they ask you to leave, get a deal where you get a good reference.

Obviously mate, we're all rooting for you here, but always prepare for the worst, if things are better, then it's a bonus.

Take those images off the work pc & delete the directory! You'd better hope that no-one else from your company is on SN!

Regacy

gross misconduct.
clear cut.
As already stated, take legal advice now.

ProperCharlie

bit tricky - seeing as he is suspended and not allowed onto his work premises.

Nick

Oh, I didn't realise. So how does he know they haven't found the images? From that statement, I assumed that he was still at his desk.

lightning101

I assume the fact that you were managing to upload and download, that you network has certain ports sitting open.

Why not remotely wipe your hard drive using WIPEINFO or any other government standard formatter/deleter.

Oh yes, and make sure you do it from an internet cafe in a different town.

Oh and an alibi.


Oh and ...... forget it - you would be as well burning the place down if you were going to those extremes.

The above is a colleagues opinion and as such is not one shared by myself. LOL

pslewis

Well, about 30 months ago I received a final written warning for e-mail abuse! My Hard drive was taken away for analysis and there was an investigation.

A Final written!

I had 22 years, solid, unmarked, service in too.

Some were calling for my head to roll - luckily others were sensible .... I am now in the Union (not that they could have helped!)

My offence was an accidental sending of a doctored e-mail to 5 people - BUT - and this is the thing with electronic mail transfer ..... it was on the Chief Execs desk in 17 minutes! Yes, 17 minutes!! through 'Forwarding'!!

A sacking is the worst of all evils, your family suffer - hard to get another job - complete life changer!

If they want to sack - offer your resignation ...... its the least they could do if you have been squeaky clean for many years

Good luck ..... I know EXACTLY what you are going through!

Pete

Scooby96

Sacked from "Nukes_R_Us" were you Pete?