2

We had a termination/resignation option for a behavioral employee and they chose the resignation option. She is now contacting current employees seeking information of business details. What should I say to this current employee?

1
  • 3
    What business details? If it seems like she's planning a lawsuit, legal should be made aware and legal should take over. If it's something else she's planning, that would be good to know as well. Jan 30, 2020 at 15:42

4 Answers 4

8

You asked,

What should I say to this current employee?

You tell them that unless they have been given clear, explicit, written permission to share company information with the public, they should not give the ex-employee any information and instead should tell the ex-employee,

Sorry, we aren't allowed to share that information with people who are not employees.

And then they should stop communicating with that person - at least, about anything even remotely related to the workplace.

Further, if your company has a person or department responsible for communicating with the public (i.e. a public relations person, or similar), or someone responsible for communicating with ex-employees (HR), you can instruct your staff to follow company policy by directing ex-employees to those parties for all communications.

2
  • Thanks @StephanBranczyk I edited that sentence to make it more clear what party was supposed to say what to whom.
    – dwizum
    Jan 30, 2020 at 15:41
  • "And then they should stop communicating with that person - at least, about anything even remotely related to the workplace." While the correct advice for these circumstances, do take note to not overapply this. As it is currently phrased, it would also apply to people who know each other (friends or family) talking about their workday.
    – Flater
    Jan 31, 2020 at 9:21
3

It depends on what you are trying to achive (and how well you know your employees/ how many there are). A brief converstaion or formal email may be suitable, depending on your circumstances.

Something like:

We have had reports that a former employee is contacting current staff asking for confidential business details.

Please do not discuss confidential business details with anyone outside the company.

Please ensure you use work email accounts, not personal email accounts for all business-related emails.

If you think there are some friendships the former employee may try to exploit you could include something like:

If a former colleague is asking you for such information then feel free to blame me for refusing to answer "Sorry I've been instructed not to discuss that outside the company"

Unless you think there are legal serious implications (and work in a high-trust culture) I wouldn't ask for reports of people being approached, as people may find this distasteful.

1

You won't be able to stop former employees or other persons from contacting your employees. If you don't want your employees giving out business details then you need to speak with them and let them know that certain company details are not to be disclosed to non-employees. If they are asked to reveal these details you can ask them to respond with something like:

I am not allowed to disclose that information.

1

If you are 100% certain that this is taking place, I would suggest you tell the employee that while it is okay for a relationship to be maintained outside of work, the business or company related information is confidential to anyone outside the company. Did any of your employees sign confidentiality agreements or NDA's? If there is not a current policy, you might want to consider implementing a policy of conferring with HR.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .