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cweber100 · May 21, 2012, 05:03 PM

I've worked for a company for 13 years. Moved up from warehouse duties to inside sales to branch manager, and back to inside sales 2 years ago. Last week, we had a branch meeting where management showed me and my 8 other coworkers, (all together), the results of the customer satisfaction survey. One of the customers left a comment, (that was shown to everyone), that read. "you should let 'my name' go. He sits in the big corner office like he runs the place and doesn't do anything for the company." I have a pretty good ideal that it was a former coworker, now turned customer, who left the comment. I can assure you it is completely untrue, and nothing on any of my performance reviews would support it even slightly. And, I am one of 3 others at the branch doing inside sales, and I write over 33% of the business month after month, year after year. I feel like my reputation amongst my coworkers has now been crushed as has much of my confidence. Can I sue for Defamation?

Fr_Chuck · May 21, 2012, 05:30 PM

You are not really serious are you ? Of course not, ( well I guess you can always sue, but you don't have a case)

This was not the companies comments and in the meeting they shared, comments from surveys or customer comments, good or bad, The company I will assume did not take them for truth, but merely shared them. And don't see any reason anyone should believe them.
Did the company give you a formal warning because of this, did they place this in your record as a negative review ?

But to have a case you have to show where this has cost you income. Did they reduce your pay because of this, did they fire you because of this, did this review cost you one penny,
NO of course not.

ScottGem · May 21, 2012, 06:42 PM

What I see are opinions. Opinions solicited by your company. There was NO problem or actionable incident in sharing the results of the survey.

Do you, in fact, have a corner office? Do you think your co-workers agree with the comment?

ballengerb1 · May 21, 2012, 06:46 PM

You have no damages and no case. Your company said nothing, someone else did. By sharing the comment they did not show/give support or denial, it is what it is, an unsigned comment

cweber100 · May 21, 2012, 07:33 PM

Yes, I do have a corner office. Most coworkers would not agree, but half of the group are new within the last 6 months to a year, and still quite impressionable. I can tell you it certainly made my face turn red, as it's quite a comment to see displayed about yourself on the overhead, and have read aloud by the manager, regardless from who it came from. The reason I mention the former coworker turned customer, is because I was his branch manager also for a few months before he quit. This did not sit well with him, as we never really saw eye to eye on a lot of things. He made out an exit letter where he wrote some very bad 'opinions' about me when he left. I kind of feel that the company using him as a survey participant is somewhat harassing to me because knowing what they know about our former relationship, and I voiced my opinion about it 3 years ago when he was amongst the participants then, obviously skewing my 'branch manager' part results negatively, and I was thus demoted from that position about 2 months later. I feel the company's survey is a venue to allow a former employee to basically harass and slander me, and they are republishing the results to all management in the whole company, (17 or so branches), and all my coworkers at my branch. Thank You all in advance for your replies.

cweber100 · May 21, 2012, 07:41 PM

Oh, as far as how much it cost. I did take a 20% cut going back to inside sales 3 years ago. But, I'd just ask, don't you think this would affect my future chances of promotion? What about the cost to ones emotional self being? It's one thing to have a heated debate with someone one on one, but feels quite different to have someone publish 3rd party opinions to the whole group as if they feel there is some truth in them... which I guarantee you is not. Think they would have made me branch manager 7 years ago if I was as good for nothing..

Fr_Chuck · May 21, 2012, 09:09 PM

No, I don't think it would effect chance of promotion if you are doing your job properly, sales and the results are what they look at. Not opinions of surveys. Plus you have to actually be rejected for promotion and this be the reason, future "maybes" can not be sured for.

Plus you changed job before this and that cut in pay is not part of this.

I think you are totally over reacting on a commit made I assume on a online comment field.
It would normally be something that is laughed at for being totally silly, if you are taking it too serious, do you have concern that it is somewhat true for others to believe it.

ScottGem · May 22, 2012, 03:05 AM

Well your fleshing out the story makes a bit of a difference. I would certainly discuss this with management. If this comment was singled out and not part of a balanced presentation, you certainly have a beef with management.

If you were demoted as a result of the previous survey, you might have been able to take action then. But my take is this is just an opinion and a solicited opinion at that. It was not a publicly published defamation. So I still don't see anything that would be actionable in court.

I do think you need to take up with management why they continue to use this customer.

cweber100 · May 22, 2012, 04:01 AM

Thanks for the replies. Yes, they are helpful. One thing I should've also pointed out, is that this survey was sent to only 100 out of approximately 500 customers, and it's not just our top 20% either. They wanted results from all customers top to bottom. Not that it matters, but he's definitely not one of our top customers. The 3 page survey was sent out by mail to them to be filled in and returned, not an online blog or the like. Only 34 were returned. There is no element of truth to any of it, and I and anyone who really knows me also knows that. Just doesn't seem right though to show this slander to new employees who know very little about anything yet.

ScottGem · May 22, 2012, 04:46 AM

First, its not really slander. Again this was a solicited opinion, solicited by your company. My company does the same thing. We annually send out such surveys to a cross section of our customers. People have the right to express their opinion. Now if he sent an unsolicited letter to management complaining about you, that would be a different story.

I would just laugh it off with a remark like oh so and so is still holding a grudge I see.

cweber100 · May 22, 2012, 01:54 PM

Sorry, but I'm having a hard time understanding why this doesn't look like slander. Every definition I've read on the internet on several different dictionary sites seem to fit perfectly. Haven't seen anything that excludes solicitation of it or whether it is someone's 'opinion', etc. In fact, since someone said I wasn't performing my occupation, I've read it's called "slander per se since the harm and malice are obvious". Please explain further if you can. Far as laughing it off, that is what I did a few years ago, but it's not that funny anymore. Thanks again for your replies.

ballengerb1 · May 22, 2012, 03:43 PM

What the person filling out the survey might be slander but the survey is anonymous. That doesn't mean you can sue your employer for reading those comments aloud. Hope this helps explain it.

ScottGem · May 22, 2012, 04:27 PM

Actually while the harm may be obvious the malice isn't. Since the opinions were solicited, that removes the malice. The respondent feels they are helping. And the harm is not that obvious unless the company takes action on the opinions.

And, again, people are allowed to express their opinion. Defamation is one of the hardest things to successfully sue over.

cweber100 · May 22, 2012, 05:31 PM

It can't be slander if true, so how can something said that's untrue not be an opinion? That makes no sense to me. Please provide example. And that quote above about slander per se was right from thefreedictionary website. Look up definition of slander. Also, while, yes, people are allowed to express opinion, others aren't allowed to publish them if they are slanderous. That's what the definition of libel is. The two collectively create defamation. So, I'm sorry, but most of this isn't yet helping much as it seems to contradict everything else I'm reading.

ScottGem · May 22, 2012, 06:16 PM

Let me put it this way. There is the letter of the law and there is the practical application of the law. Finding a dictionary definition is NOT the law. You came here to ask for advice from people with more experience and you refuse to accept that advice. If you aren't going to listen to us, go see an attorney.

I can say that Mitt Romney was a lousy governor. That's an opinion. If I say that he was a corrupt governor, that is an accusation and (unless I can prove it) slander. (Disclaimer: this was an example and not an accusation).

And this opinion wasn't "published", it was a response to a company survey not a public pronouncement.

Look I understand how upsetting this was to you. It was a lousy thing to do.

But your question was "can I sue for defamation?" and actually that's not the right question. Anyone can sue for almost anything. Your real question should have been "can I win a defamation suit?". In my opinion, no you can't. This doesn't qualify as a public accusation, nor can you prove material harm unless you bring in the previous instance which you may not be able to.

But don't take my word for it. File your suit and in 5 years or so and after spending may be $100 grand or more you will be back here trying to figure out where you went wrong.