Suspended, demoted, and a source for many rumors has surfaced

[Heretoparty]

Colorado-

I work for a small company in Denver, and have had an interesting last couple weeks. I was brought into the office completely random about a week and a half ago to meet with my HR manager and the operations director. I oversee the training of my company, and was initially asked about how the training process goes. It is very straight forward, and has several gates in place to ensure trainees have proper credentials before advancing. The next couple questions is how do I communicate with employees, and I replied by email for a variety of reasons. Followed up by, do you ever use text or snapchat? Nope, not ever.

This is where the conversation took quite the turn. Have you ever socialized with employees outside of work. I have, nothing that was inappropriate or not 100% mutual by both parties. Then I was asked if I have ever had a romantic relationship with anyone at work. After about 20 seconds of silence, I say sorta, myself and a girl had gone on a few dates, including her inviting me to her families to meet her parents and hang out for the afternoon. So I confirm that I have in fact had a social interaction with this girl, and it had quickly dissipated due to us having busy lives. She was completely cleared from any training, and I have zero oversight of her in any capability.

Next up is the, have you ever send pictures to anyone on snapchat? Hell no. Are you sure. No I haven't. This seems to be a point of fixation from them.

After a discussion for about 30 minutes I'm dismissed, and I requested to call in sick the next day. They offer to just give me the next few days off with paid admin leave, and state I am not in trouble.

A week goes by, and they tell me I'm being disciplined for sexual harassment because this girl and I got into a private arguement and it was portrayed as me intimidating her. I follow that up with, "if I was intimidating her, why was I invited to her house to meet her parents?" Nothing. Then I was also disciplined for dating a subordinate, even though I have zero oversight of her. They state as a person in a position of trust we are not equals. Lastly, they say I committed a "crime against the kingdom" by not fessing up when asked right off the bat.

My punishment is a week unpaid suspension, demotion, pay taken away. No termination, so I guess I can sorta live with this.

This weekend, it was brought to my attention that there is one guy that's telling people I was fired, when I wasn't clearly, and that I was also sending illicit pictures to this girl, also false. I had a second person state this guy was also bringing this up at a party over the weekend telling people all these rumors.

What am I looking at with all this drama? He was a trainer that had been demoted earlier last year due to documentation and performance issues and has been a problem around the organization ever since. Is this a case for slander? My employer seems to be heavily investigating the rumors, when there was no actual complaint by the female mentioned above, and there was no other actual factual issues.

 

[quincy]

Colorado-

I work for a small company in Denver, and have had an interesting last couple weeks. I was brought into the office completely random about a week and a half ago to meet with my HR manager and the operations director. I oversee the training of my company, and was initially asked about how the training process goes. It is very straight forward, and has several gates in place to ensure trainees have proper credentials before advancing. The next couple questions is how do I communicate with employees, and I replied by email for a variety of reasons. Followed up by, do you ever use text or snapchat? Nope, not ever.

This is where the conversation took quite the turn. Have you ever socialized with employees outside of work. I have, nothing that was inappropriate or not 100% mutual by both parties. Then I was asked if I have ever had a romantic relationship with anyone at work. After about 20 seconds of silence, I say sorta, myself and a girl had gone on a few dates, including her inviting me to her families to meet her parents and hang out for the afternoon. So I confirm that I have in fact had a social interaction with this girl, and it had quickly dissipated due to us having busy lives. She was completely cleared from any training, and I have zero oversight of her in any capability.

Next up is the, have you ever send pictures to anyone on snapchat? Hell no. Are you sure. No I haven't. This seems to be a point of fixation from them.

After a discussion for about 30 minutes I'm dismissed, and I requested to call in sick the next day. They offer to just give me the next few days off with paid admin leave, and state I am not in trouble.

A week goes by, and they tell me I'm being disciplined for sexual harassment because this girl and I got into a private arguement and it was portrayed as me intimidating her. I follow that up with, "if I was intimidating her, why was I invited to her house to meet her parents?" Nothing. Then I was also disciplined for dating a subordinate, even though I have zero oversight of her. They state as a person in a position of trust we are not equals. Lastly, they say I committed a "crime against the kingdom" by not fessing up when asked right off the bat.

My punishment is a week unpaid suspension, demotion, pay taken away. No termination, so I guess I can sorta live with this.

This weekend, it was brought to my attention that there is one guy that's telling people I was fired, when I wasn't clearly, and that I was also sending illicit pictures to this girl, also false. I had a second person state this guy was also bringing this up at a party over the weekend telling people all these rumors.

What am I looking at with all this drama? He was a trainer that had been demoted earlier last year due to documentation and performance issues and has been a problem around the organization ever since. Is this a case for slander? My employer seems to be heavily investigating the rumors, when there was no actual complaint by the female mentioned above, and there was no other actual factual issues.

Have you spoken directly with the fellow who is creating stories about you, to ask him why he is spreading the falsehoods - and to ask him to stop?

Have you spoken to HR about the fellow who is creating stories about you?

Defamation suits are expensive affairs and time consuming and are not always effective at cleaning up a soiled reputation. There are other, generally better actions to consider first.

 

[cbg]

That's their job, to investigate the rumors. That's exactly what they are supposed to do. Clearly someone had a problem with your relationship with 'this girl'.

So, have you got $50,000 (if cheap) and five years (if quick) to throw at a lawsuit?

 

[Heretoparty]

I've done nothing yet. I wanted to make sure what was going on from a legal perspective before I say anything. I just found out about this guy spreading rumors today, and am going in Tuesday to review some of the outcome from this. I'd ultimately like to bring this to the HR manager's attention and see what her thoughts are. I haven't said anything to him because I don't want to come across as retaliative.

 

[quincy]

I've done nothing yet. I wanted to make sure what was going on from a legal perspective before I say anything. I just found out about this guy spreading rumors today, and am going in Tuesday to review some of the outcome from this. I'd ultimately like to bring this to the HR manager's attention and see what her thoughts are. I haven't said anything to him because I don't want to come across as retaliative.

Sometimes the best way to stop the spread of falsehoods is to ask the person responsible for creating the lies why they are doing it. This can embarrass them and shut them up.

But assessing the fallout from the lies is smart before taking any action of any kind.

Following is a link to defamation laws (jury instructions) in Colorado. You can click and read, to learn the elements of defamation and what must be demonstrated to be successful with a suit.

https://www.courts.state.co.us/userfiles/file/Court_Probation/Supreme_Court/Committees/Civil_Jury_Instructions_Committee/Chapter 22.pdf

 

[Heretoparty]

I think the first thing I'd like to do is talk about this with HR, and if I see him, ask him about it. If anything, I'd like the demotion to be revoked, which would probably help dissipate the rumors, where the demotion pretty much confirms it for the entire organization to view.

 

[quincy]

I think the first thing I'd like to do is talk about this with HR, and if I see him, ask him about it. If anything, I'd like the demotion to be revoked, which would probably help dissipate the rumors, where the demotion pretty much confirms it for the entire organization to view.

Speaking to HR first is a good option.

 

[Heretoparty]

Ok thank you! I figured, but with this situation I wanted to make sure I have my bases covered to whatever extent.

 

[quincy]

Ok thank you! I figured, but with this situation I wanted to make sure I have my bases covered to whatever extent.

You are smart to learn about what options are available to you. With luck, HR's investigation will result in a clearing of your name and the employee who has been spreading lies will look as foolish as he is.

Good luck.