[harper_]

My Dh & I work for the same company - a large Oil & gas company. On friday they had a social event, basically drink & nibbles with a presentation from staff that had just returned from a conference in the US. The main speaker was a young woman and was humourous and entertaining, there was a bit of banter & a few jokes going on. So it was quite light-hearted. She came across as quite confident and engaging, but spoke very quickly and was sometimes hard to understand and as she was taking questions, my DH stuck his hand up and asked if she picked up a crack habit in the US (because of her fast talking) everyone laughed, but it was obvious that she didn't find it very funny and left straight after the presentation finished. My DH was mortified that he had obviously upset her and sought out the organiser of the social event to apologise. DH apologied profusely and asked her to pass on his apologies, but she wasn't very impressed. Anyway we left. The next day DH talked about and mentioned how bad he felt etc and acknowledged it was a stupid, thoughtless joke etc But anyway he gets to work on Monday and apparently senior members of staff including the woman he apologised to, were looking for him after the presentation and asking other members of staff what his name was and what department he worked for etc so it sounds like there is going to be some fallout from this. Just curious to what people think potentially could happen. Is this a sackable offence?

[pratique]

Awkward for all.

It was inappropriate and hurtful. It is a good thing he apologised afterwards. That might help his case somewhat.

Work would have probably paid alot for this speaker and his comments made the company look unprofessional. I would imagine he will get a slap on the wrist and made to officially apologise.

Good luck

[harper_]

Awkward for all.

It was inappropriate and hurtful. It is a good thing he apologised afterwards. That might help his case somewhat.

Work would have probably paid alot for this speaker and his comments made the company look unprofessional. I would imagine he will get a slap on the wrist and made to officially apologise.

Good luck

No the speaker was a member of staff. He didn't know them though.

[soontobegran]

Very awkward and sounds like the stuff that happens after a few drinks have loosened the lips
It is a terribly inappropriate thing to say and I understand why the speaker would be offended and wanting follow up.

I am not in the business world but surely there would have to be some type of warning system before being sacked but if I was your DH I would go in with his tail between his legs and ask what he can do to make it better.
I have a good and sometimes slightly sick sense of humour but I think I'd be wanting a very public apology for this.

Hopefully all will be well.

[Goggie]

Stupid comment he made. But unlikely to be a termination type offence, unless he has a history or other warnings for inappropriate behaviour.
He will likely get a 'you should have known better' talk, a discussion on appropriate company behavior and values and potentially if they are wanting to set an example, a verbal or written warning. If this was in my company I would recommend a firm discussion about appropriateness of 'jokes'.

I'm sure he will be ok, I wouldn't stress too much about it. He should be apologetic to all involved though.

[tibs]

At my work there *may* be discipinary action for that depending on the personalities of the directors involved. But that would just involve some kind of counselling session on appropriate behaviour/harrassment etc not sacking

[PrincessPeach]

I don't think it would be a termination offence, although he may be issued with a warning.

However given he did actually apologise to the event organiser that should be taken into consideration.

I do however understand where his comment came from, presenters that speak fast & are hard to understand are not ideal.

[YodaTheWrinkledO...]

I can't imagine he'd be sacked. But I would imagine that he might be called in for a few choice words, given a warning about conducting himself appropriately & possibly some further training in suitable workplace behavior (even if it was at a social function, it was a WORK social function)

[mpjp]

It's good that your DH realised he stuffed up.

I'm in HR and often feel sorry for people in this situation - its like some people 'forget' that they are at work when there are drinkies and banter and they start to think they're amongst friends - and so behave accordingly. It doesnt matter how casual a workplace is I've seen people get into trouble timee and time again with this.


My advice to your DH would be to march straight into the office of the most appropriate senior person (his boss, her boss, even HR if he's not sure) and explain the situation and ask if he could please offer a most sincere apology. Being on the front foot in these things ALWAYS ends much better than just sitting there waiting for their first move.

If he is going to face disciplinary aciton then I woulddnt imagine it would be anything more than a warning if it is exactly as you describe (and one of the important bits here is a) were the drinks supplied by work and b) was he drunk?).

[Flaxen]

I believe a warning might be put forward to him, but im confident its not a sackable offence.
Read through his employment contract, the company's Code of Conduct with the applicable consequences will be outlined there.

Usually several warnings must be laid first prior, unless the situation is much more serious, such as theft, which still requires a police report to fire them.