I served legal paperwork to the ex-wife of a
Direct coworker/ friend in a hospital setting. We all work for the same employer, though I do not work directly with his wife, we work in different departments. The wife wrote a grievance against me. I was counseled on "unprofessional" behavior concerning my dual role. When I served her I was off the clock. I served her discreetly and politely at her place of work. There is no policy concerning serving staff during their work hours in place. I was told she was unproductive after I served her. This counseling letter will be part of my personnel file. Do I have a right of privacy concerning duties off the clock. I performed a lawful duty What are my rights?

You used your position as a employee to go to her work and serve her. A non employee could not have such access.

You should have known better than to serve her doing working hours. She needed to have been off duty also.

But best, she needed to be away from the work place.

You may appeal this to the company, but to be honest, I would agree, you doing this at the work place, during her working hours, used your position with the company.

You mixed personal business with company business, a very bad thing to do.

Your friend showed poor judgement in having a friend do this, instead of hiring and paying for a professional to do legal service.

I agree. You want a right to privacy off the clock, and she wants a right to privacy on the clock. I doubt that either one is specifically addressed on company policy, but it's reasonable to reprimand you for invading her work space for something unpleasant. You should have waited until she left the building.

Once you took on the role as a legal paper work server, you did not have the right to enter the company without (guess) asking permission of management to serve such paper work on company property.

By using your position with the company, even though off duty, you assumed a on duty role, to enter the property and go to her work station. Just be glad she did not make a scene and cause a lot of trouble, this well could have cost you, your job.

FYI the letter was removed from the PF after discussion with HR director and supervisor. Thank you for your input. After hearing different views, I believe, though I did something uncomfortable, very direct and was not very sensible. I did not break any laws, violated any company policies or
acted unprofessional. Yes sometimes the barrier of messages gets killed.

Yes, I too often kill the barrier of messages also.

What everyone told you here was accurate...you just got lucky that the company you work for was willing to listen...many wouldn't.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nissicocco

FYI the letter was removed from the PF after discussion with HR director and supervisor. Thank you for your input. After hearing different views, I believe, though I did something uncomfortable, very direct and was not very sensible. I did not break any laws, violated any company policies or
acted unprofessional. Yes sometimes the barrier of messages gets killed.

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No you did not break any laws. And I don't know whether you did violate company policy since I don't know what the policy is. But what you did WAS unprofessional. You used your position in the company and your knowledge of company personnel to perform non company business. I would count this as unprofessional, especially if you got paid for this.

You are indeed lucky that it was taken out of your personnel file, but I doubt if it will be forgotten.