Fired Employee sending email

SBLArch

Several months ago we fired an employee for tardiness, absenteeism and lying about the above. Just this week, several employees have received emails from him stating what a bad environment it was, how he was unjustly fired (you get the idea). My question is....can we (as a company) send out an email instructing our employees not to correspond with this person? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

cebudragonlady

Can you set up your e-mail system not to accept
e-mails from this ex-employee's e-mail address ? Kind of like blocking Spam .

Chari

Theresa Gegen TX

There is no reason to prohibit you from asking employees not to communicate with him while at work. Especially, if they are using company equipment to do so. However, there is nothing you can do about after work communication.

Whatever you do, do not defame the ex-employee! Do not get into all the reasons for his termination or an argument about whether the workplace was fair! If an employee asks, you should respond that this information is confidential under company policy -- just like if any employee is disciplined -- and you will not discuss his termination.

Most employees will understand this, and most are probably ignoring him. Ignoring him maybe the best route. If you give him too much attention, employees may begin to think that he is more credible.

Good Luck!

FHR

Of course you can instruct ee's not to use company time or email to correspond with an ex ee. But Theresa is right, pay too much attention to this and the current ee's will as well.

rad

Yes, assuming he is sending the e-mails to their work addresses, you can have an e-mail policy that prohibits employees from using the e-mail system for non-business purposes. Most places have one. Granted most employees do it anyway but you can put the policy in place.

Whatever

Prohibiting ees from using the e-mail system for non-business purposes would only result, in this case, of punishing the receivers of the e-mail. You cannot fire the sender anymore. However, as was previously suggested, there are spam blocking programs available where the user can add to the list of blocked incoming mail.

SDDCHR

I wouldn't get too excited about it. For the most part, I would think that your current employee's know the type of person they are dealing with. Give it a little time and it will go away. I would give a quick reminder that your email system is for official business only so that you don't have any current employees corresponding with this reject and egging the person on.

AJ SPHR

I agree with those who have stated to tread carefully so you don't punish the receiving employees. And don't make too big a deal of this or the employees will wonder why you're so concerned. If an employee approaches you stating they don't want to see the email, they could set their own email filter to have the notes go directly to their trash folder.

As far as putting a company filter on to not allow the termed employees email through in the first place, is this a similar scenario to the Microsoft case a year or two ago? A termed employee was sending what Microsoft called Spam - general emails to all employees with complaints about Microsoft. Microsoft wanted to filter his notes out or legally forbid him from using the company email system, but I think the courts ruled it was a violation of the ex-employee's first amendment rights. Would this be a similar situation? That might give you some caution in how you treat the situation - or give you a reason to just ignore it.

Pricehcs

I believe the company was Intel. The scenario,and case outcome that AJ mentions are correct, however. The company cannot forbid an individual from sending emails to its employees at their work email address, however they can block sending IP addresses/domain names (much like a spam filter) at their discretion.


#1 thing a consultant shouldn't say: "I could tell you the answer right now, but we're committed to a three month project..." #-o

Betty I_O

We took a little different route with an ex-employee who was constantly sending letters, e-mails,and phoning current employees during their work time, etc. for months and months after he was terminated. Our employees complained and even though they specifically told this ex-amployee they did not want to be bothered, he persisted. Our attorney drafted a "cease and desist" letter to the ex-employee, which we sent over the VP of HR's signature. This may seem like a drastic move, but it worked; no one has heard from the ex-employee since.