Dear Experienced Members, Greetings!
I am posting this question based on an incident I recently heard from an ex-colleague. I am told that the person incidentally was asked to leave by his organization due to his mistake which went against him. It seems he sent welcome emails to new hire candidates from his official email id on behalf of the company. Officially he was not authorized to do so as he was not part of the recruitment team, but he went ahead and did it as a favor to one of his friends who was working in a placement firm. He was assured that they were all confirmed candidates who were hired in a campus recruitment drive that was conducted by his own company but was located in a different city. It seems he did that favor because his friend had worked earlier with him in his previous organisation. Little did he know that his action would land himself in trouble.
After many months, those candidates started following up because they had not received their joining dates. Ultimately, one of them escalated the matter, which came under the management's radar. Finally, disciplinary action was conducted against him, and he was issued a Termination Letter.
I know this was an unfortunate event which should not have happened. I have known my friend for a long time now, and he has always been an exceeding performer in his professional career. This one wrong move caused a big blow. After discussing the matter, I found out that he fell prey to the fraud that his ex-colleague led him to do. He did not know that it would land him to such a big problem. He is facing difficulties in getting a new job now. He has spent almost 8 yrs in the consulting services domain in well known MNCs. So, I have listed down a couple of questions to seek guidance from all respected seniors.
1. Since, he was issued a Termination Letter, he was not given a Relieving Letter or Service Letter. It seems there was just one line in his Term Letter stating that he worked from xxx date. The letter details the entire episode, so furnishing that to potential employers is asking for trouble. What should he do?
2. Even if an employee is being terminated, legally, isn't he supposed to get a separate service / relieving letter that states that he worked for those many months or years? He worked for 1 year and 3 months with the company.
I would appreciate some guidance from a senior HR member on this forum who could be of help.
Thank you
From India, Hyderabad
1I am posting this question based on an incident I recently heard from an ex-colleague. I am told that the person incidentally was asked to leave by his organization due to his mistake which went against him. It seems he sent welcome emails to new hire candidates from his official email id on behalf of the company. Officially he was not authorized to do so as he was not part of the recruitment team, but he went ahead and did it as a favor to one of his friends who was working in a placement firm. He was assured that they were all confirmed candidates who were hired in a campus recruitment drive that was conducted by his own company but was located in a different city. It seems he did that favor because his friend had worked earlier with him in his previous organisation. Little did he know that his action would land himself in trouble.
After many months, those candidates started following up because they had not received their joining dates. Ultimately, one of them escalated the matter, which came under the management's radar. Finally, disciplinary action was conducted against him, and he was issued a Termination Letter.
I know this was an unfortunate event which should not have happened. I have known my friend for a long time now, and he has always been an exceeding performer in his professional career. This one wrong move caused a big blow. After discussing the matter, I found out that he fell prey to the fraud that his ex-colleague led him to do. He did not know that it would land him to such a big problem. He is facing difficulties in getting a new job now. He has spent almost 8 yrs in the consulting services domain in well known MNCs. So, I have listed down a couple of questions to seek guidance from all respected seniors.
1. Since, he was issued a Termination Letter, he was not given a Relieving Letter or Service Letter. It seems there was just one line in his Term Letter stating that he worked from xxx date. The letter details the entire episode, so furnishing that to potential employers is asking for trouble. What should he do?
2. Even if an employee is being terminated, legally, isn't he supposed to get a separate service / relieving letter that states that he worked for those many months or years? He worked for 1 year and 3 months with the company.
I would appreciate some guidance from a senior HR member on this forum who could be of help.
Thank you
From India, Hyderabad
Hi Akshaye,
After going through the whole episode, I really found the importance of an advice my parents give to me, do not work on something of which you have no knowledge.
They say that having no knowledge will hamper the success; but half knowledge is extremely dangerous.
I would really like to emphasis that in helping out your friends and colleagues do not overstep and cross the boundaries. There are certain tasks assigned to each one of us and honestly though they all look similar tasks, they would be different as the details would differ.
We can help others by suggesting and giving them ideas, but doing something on behalf of someone, especially when it is not your KRA can back fire anytime.
What is done can't be undone. But we can always learn from it.
A relieving letter is issued to a person to re-emphasize the fact that the person is now no longer associated with the company and that the relationship has been mutually revoked for whatever reasons.
As far as my knowledge goes, there is no need of giving relieiving letter separately.
Now to be clearer, though it seems that the person was just trying to help the friend of his and he didn't realize that he would be liable for it in future, he was just being punished out of his innocence or his empathy to help.
But if you look at it from the company's and the employee's point of view -
The employees were mailed that they're selected for the said position.
After recieving this mail, any one would stop searching for the job further.
If the people were somewhere working, they must have to prepare for relieving and might have already put their papers down and hence are now jobless.
They had been following up with the company seeking their joining dates, and the authorities of the company are not aware of this scene.
Obviously the company cannot say that it was a fault of its employee so sorry. They have incurred some loss. And yet, financial losses might be recovered in some time, but they also lost their goodwill in front of those candidates.
Those 4-5 candidates would share their this episode that the company ditched them and said they are selected and then never gave joining dates to all their friends and family, who in turn would spread it further, and this will spread like a wild fire.
It is not that the company is not right in terminating the employee.
Sometimes it is unfortunate that we learn lessons in a tough and hard manner.
Yet lets wait for some advice from seniors. Perhaps they can take it in different way and can help out. I am unable to see any hope in this.
From India, Mumbai
After going through the whole episode, I really found the importance of an advice my parents give to me, do not work on something of which you have no knowledge.
They say that having no knowledge will hamper the success; but half knowledge is extremely dangerous.
I would really like to emphasis that in helping out your friends and colleagues do not overstep and cross the boundaries. There are certain tasks assigned to each one of us and honestly though they all look similar tasks, they would be different as the details would differ.
We can help others by suggesting and giving them ideas, but doing something on behalf of someone, especially when it is not your KRA can back fire anytime.
What is done can't be undone. But we can always learn from it.
A relieving letter is issued to a person to re-emphasize the fact that the person is now no longer associated with the company and that the relationship has been mutually revoked for whatever reasons.
As far as my knowledge goes, there is no need of giving relieiving letter separately.
Now to be clearer, though it seems that the person was just trying to help the friend of his and he didn't realize that he would be liable for it in future, he was just being punished out of his innocence or his empathy to help.
But if you look at it from the company's and the employee's point of view -
The employees were mailed that they're selected for the said position.
After recieving this mail, any one would stop searching for the job further.
If the people were somewhere working, they must have to prepare for relieving and might have already put their papers down and hence are now jobless.
They had been following up with the company seeking their joining dates, and the authorities of the company are not aware of this scene.
Obviously the company cannot say that it was a fault of its employee so sorry. They have incurred some loss. And yet, financial losses might be recovered in some time, but they also lost their goodwill in front of those candidates.
Those 4-5 candidates would share their this episode that the company ditched them and said they are selected and then never gave joining dates to all their friends and family, who in turn would spread it further, and this will spread like a wild fire.
It is not that the company is not right in terminating the employee.
Sometimes it is unfortunate that we learn lessons in a tough and hard manner.
Yet lets wait for some advice from seniors. Perhaps they can take it in different way and can help out. I am unable to see any hope in this.
From India, Mumbai
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