Written Warning?

Question

During a dispute about wages,a hotmail email account belonging to another company my employer owns (Not the one I work for) got spammed continuously for about an hour.The mails were confirmation emails from a company I have no connection with.
Because the secretary of our company logged into the other companys hotmail it lagged the computer.
I said it was me causing it,as a joke.
I now have a written warning from my company
"You admitted in front of 3 members of staff to maliciously spamming my "****autos" hotmail address.I will not tolerate such an act of gross misconduct and unlawful activity whilst you are a member of my staff."

Can he do this? The only evidence he has linking it to me is my claim to staff it was me,the server isnt mine that spammed it,or is my IP involved,or do I work for the company targeted.None of it involved works PC's in the "attack"

Answer 1

Yes, he can do this. Your company probably has some sort of procedure for defending yourself. Generally put it in writing for your boss, wait for a reply. If negative, put it in writing to his boss, wait for a reply. Etc.

Now that the situation as calmed down, I think you should go to your boss to discuss the problem. Tell him you were joking and ask if he did any other investigation to learn if you had participated. If he refuses to discuss the problem or reconsider his decision, then follow the procedure.

How long have your worked there? How have your previous performance reviews looked? If you have been there a while and you have shown yourself to be a good employee, I would not worry about one warning in the file. Since there have not been others and you don't anticipate any in the future, this is not a big problem. I would definitely get something written in that file to show your side of the story though.

Answer 2

Yes, of course they can .. the 'evidence' may be 'circumstantial' however your 'confession' is the clincher ...

You will need to respond to the written warning, retracting your 'confession' and apologising for making such a stupid joke. Try to get a meeting with some-one from HR to explain the joke and ask that the Written Warning be cancelled.

Even so, I doubt your Manager will be considering you for promotion (or a pay rise) in the near future - after all, the judgement of some-one who makes jokes of this type (and is plainly unable to see the seriousness of the situation) has to be called into question .. so you might well consider getting your CV up-to-date ...

NB. Spammers never use their own Servers or their own PC's .. and the 'headers' of most Spam eMails (including the return address and originating IP) is usually faked (as I'm sure you know).

Answer 3

if you said it you said it. whether it was a joke or not. I'd suggest you have a word with your boss, after they have cooled down, expalin you said it was a joke and see if they are prepared to reconsider their actions.. otherwise you have a written warning.

if they do not reconsider their actions then if I were you I'd reconsider my options and move elsewhere.. if you've hacked them off that much then the germ is already there. In fact thinking about it, unless your boss calms down and sees it form your perspective I'd leave anyway.. they now believe you to have done that, so it will remain there for a long long time.

Answer 4

Well, yes, he can do it. If his only evidence is your claim that it was you, well, that's pretty good evidence!
If it wasn't you I think you need to write a letter to your employer stating that you are in no way responsible for this and apologizing for an inappropriate joke (in saying that you were).

Answer 5

Yes he can.

Answer 6

YOU CONDEMMED YOURSELF??????ARE YOU REAL???IF YOU DID YOU DESERVE IT.EVEN IF YOU CAN PROVE OTHERWISE,WE ALL DO SILLY THINGS IN OUR LIVES.NO PROBLEM SO LONG AS IT IS ONLY YOU THAT PAYS.