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Wronly Accused

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jobrador

Junior Member
Wrongly Accused

What is the name of your state? Florida
I have recently accepted a position in a different department within the company I work for. When I accepted this position I never new this department had such a bad PR rap. About 3 weeks ago our VP was asked to resign. Ever since we have been reporting to director that has been with the company for about 5 years. As our manager explained to us, we are now reporting to this person because the CIO wants him to "straighten us out". I am actually OK with this. I thought the department needed a swift kick in the butt to get things on track. My manager and the Director have had several meeting. Topics range from prioritizing projects all the way to dress code. We are being scrutinized and looked at under a microscope every second of the day.

Well, my problem is this. My manager was called in to the Directors office this afternoon. When he came out, he informed our project leader of what had transpired in the meeting. He also told the project leader to meet with us. At this meeting we found out that our manager had been called in to the Directors office because someone had accused one us of playing games on our computer. Yes, I know this sounds trivial, but ever since we have been reporting to this new person, thing have gotten ridiculous. Our project leader did not want to say who had been accused at first. We told him that no one had played any games. We asked him to tell us who the accused was since we were not going to be told who accused one of us. To my surprise I was the one accused of playing games. Needles to say I was very angry and upset. First of all, I never play computer games. I don't have the patience. Secondly not only was I not playing games on my computer, I was working through lunch. I grabbed a small container of salad from the cafeteria and eat it while I worked. I do this often. I have never had any problems at work. As a matter of fact all my reviews have been excellent.

I don't know where to go from here. Our project leader was not going to tell us whom they had accused. He had been told to advise us to stop playing games. He was not supposed to reveal who the accused was. He told us the truth because he believed us when we told him that no one was playing games. I feel I have been pronounced guilty without even having a chance to defend myself in front of the director. The project leader gave us the info on who the accused was in the strictest confidence. I don't want to cause any problems I just want to protect my reputation and myself. I don't know where to go from here. I would like to confront the director and tell him that whoever accused me of playing games is full of crap. Oh, one funny this is that I don't even have the game I was accused of playing loaded on my computer.
I'm not looking for legal advice. I just need advise on how to protect my reputation and myself.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
 
Last edited:


Beth3

Senior Member
Barging into the Director's office with a headfull of steam to "confront" him and proclaim your innocence is not the way to go. You'll just make a bad situation worse.

What you should do is to ask your Manager how you should proceed. Are you better off just leaving this be and relying upon your past solid reputation with the company for management to assume the allegation is without merit, as well as your manager telling the Director the complaint is abusurd? Or would you be best served by speaking (calmly!) with the Director to assure him or her you were not playing games on your computer.

I've been in management for many years and I can tell you just because an allegation is made doesn't mean it's believed. I've had allegations made about certain employees that I've known immediately were absurd simply because we know the accused well enough to know that the allegation is outside the realm of possibility.

What you need to consider here is whether you'll make a bigger issue of the allegation by "keeping it alive." The fact that the Director decided to handle this with no more than a "remind everyone not to play games" tells me he thinks the complaint is no big deal and lacks credibility.
 

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