Employment Question

[Colonel Bogey]

Does a verbal instruction, rather than a written one, have as much weight? If your boss has given you a verbal instruction, but you have no proof of it, can you say that you were just following their instructions, even if they, your boss, were to deny them?

 

[Doon frae Troon]

Depends entirely on the circumstances.
He/she could be asking you to break the law or not follow company H&S procedure.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

It makes life very difficult as clearly there is no independent proof unless there are others in the room. I think in reality, you know the answer to this and it is not in your favour. If you are not happy with the instruction, ask them to put it in writing. If they wont.........................

A number of years ago I was working in a company that had a subsidiary hell bent on trying to screw us over. The MD of ours told us to make a note of any conversation or meeting we held with someone from there and email it across to the person / persons involved afterwards so as to create a written record. We asked them to correct the email if they disagreed with our understanding of the conversation. This worked very well and stopped us being stitched up, as happened before this advice. Worth doing this, it soon gets the message across if they refuse to give written instructions in the first place.

 

[SocketRocket]

It makes life very difficult as clearly there is no independent proof unless there are others in the room. I think in reality, you know the answer to this and it is not in your favour. If you are not happy with the instruction, ask them to put it in writing. If they wont.........................

A number of years ago I was working in a company that had a subsidiary hell bent on trying to screw us over. The MD of ours told us to make a note of any conversation or meeting we held with someone from there and email it across to the person / persons involved afterwards so as to create a written record. We asked them to correct the email if they disagreed with our understanding of the conversation. This worked very well and stopped us being stitched up, as happened before this advice. Worth doing this, it soon gets the message across if they refuse to give written instructions in the first place.

I agree, sending an email and asking if they agree with its contents is a good policy in such cases. Even if they dont reply you have proof of asking.

 

[harpo_72]

Does a verbal instruction, rather than a written one, have as much weight? If your boss has given you a verbal instruction, but you have no proof of it, can you say that you were just following their instructions, even if they, your boss, were to deny them?

Just repeat the instructions back to your boss and ask him/ her to confirm and do it with a witness ( possibly with the person who will be helping you) . If that is unreasonable just tell him/her you were worried about miscommunication.

 

[Wilson]

I agree, sending an email and asking if they agree with its contents is a good policy in such cases. Even if they dont reply you have proof of asking.

Thirded - we have a few people at work who I don't trust, and everything goes in writing, they always ask why I keep confirming everything in writing, which says it all.

 

[drdel]

^^^ As above; I also carried a note book and wrote dated comments: notes made at the time can have considerable weight. People remember things differently (post event rationalisation) i.e. Lie. Remember Richard Branson using his personal notes to great effect when he took BA to court.