Volitale Employee
LindaS
1,510 Posts
I posted this on another site but am looking for as much assistance as possible.
We have an employee who served prison time for conspiracy to commit murder prior to his being hired (I did not hire him). He has used this incident to incite fear into his co-workers (this was not brought to my attention until this week). He has, based on the statements this week from his co-workers, an unpredictable temper and can "go off" at any time.
Last week, for reasons unknown, he became very incensed at our plant manager and applied for, and was awarded, another position within our facility. In his former department there was a book that was used by the set-up people (his former job) that had notes and pictures of various set-ups to assist individuals in getting the set-ups done quicker and accurate. He made statements to individuals that he was going to get rid of the book as he felt the new set-up people needed to learn the way he did. The book is now missing and it is going to cost the company significant amounts of money because of it. We are going to be calling people in who have retired to assist individuals in re-learning these set-ups (sometimes it is more than a year between some jobs). The problem is this EE routinely came in over one hour before the start of his shift (I only became aware of this last week) and before anyone else in his department was here, so nobody actually saw him take this book.
Once it was brought to my attention I began an investigation and, while people are willing to TALK to me about what happened, there is great fear in having their names placed in the investigative file due to possible retaliation from him. I have guaranteed confidentiality but they are not convinced and fear not only for themselves but their families as well.
In addition, I now have a grievance from the union stating that he was unjustly suspended and demanding he be brought back. I will fight this but I have people that are refusing to sign anything, or place anything in writing if there is any chance of his returning to work.
Any advice?
We have an employee who served prison time for conspiracy to commit murder prior to his being hired (I did not hire him). He has used this incident to incite fear into his co-workers (this was not brought to my attention until this week). He has, based on the statements this week from his co-workers, an unpredictable temper and can "go off" at any time.
Last week, for reasons unknown, he became very incensed at our plant manager and applied for, and was awarded, another position within our facility. In his former department there was a book that was used by the set-up people (his former job) that had notes and pictures of various set-ups to assist individuals in getting the set-ups done quicker and accurate. He made statements to individuals that he was going to get rid of the book as he felt the new set-up people needed to learn the way he did. The book is now missing and it is going to cost the company significant amounts of money because of it. We are going to be calling people in who have retired to assist individuals in re-learning these set-ups (sometimes it is more than a year between some jobs). The problem is this EE routinely came in over one hour before the start of his shift (I only became aware of this last week) and before anyone else in his department was here, so nobody actually saw him take this book.
Once it was brought to my attention I began an investigation and, while people are willing to TALK to me about what happened, there is great fear in having their names placed in the investigative file due to possible retaliation from him. I have guaranteed confidentiality but they are not convinced and fear not only for themselves but their families as well.
In addition, I now have a grievance from the union stating that he was unjustly suspended and demanding he be brought back. I will fight this but I have people that are refusing to sign anything, or place anything in writing if there is any chance of his returning to work.
Any advice?
Comments
The set-up book is obviously very valuable to the company and I would suspect you can put a dollar figure on that. Based on that it would seem that you have reasonable suspicion of theft of valuable company property which you can take to the police. Having an outside agency (police) investigating this will, hopefully, soothe the fears of those who wish to remain anonomous. Plus the police can carry the investigation where it needs to go, which is outside the company where the book is probably located.
Continue your mission to gather information on this employee from other employees, even if they want to remain anonomous. Eventually you will get some corroboration of statements that will be valid enough to show that this person is creating a fearful and hostile work environment.
Getting the union steward to cooperate with you can be done by having the various witnesses share what they've told you with the union steward. Once he/she starts "feeling the pain" of dealing with this individual, you may gain an ally.
Overall, the important thing is to not let this situation rest. Keep this guy off balance with your ongoing investigation. Eventually he will slip up, he'll say too much, or somebody will eventually put their name on their statement.