I got suspended from work Friday....falsly accused with no proof

[Augnon]

I got suspended because I was accused of downloading company data. The guy that accused me was from the dept that monitors data loss prevention stuff. DLP software monitors and record user network usage habits and when it changes alerts go off. He said that I was abusing my network admin privileges. This guy was actually happy to "claim" I was being mischievous.

I'm just wondering what my next steps should be in this situation.


He came over to my desk with two other people and still as of today he still doesn't have any proof I did anything wrong. He stated they started looking at my network usage on Monday of last week. On Monday of last week, I was looking at holiday pictures from the prior years. As we all know pictures are large in size when they are uploaded from a digital camera. The guy even had a meeting with my dept about why I left work early even then he was unable to tell them what I did. He had no proof.


Now here is what sucks about this. I'm a consultant so I work for another company, So I don't have an "HR" to go to. The person that does the account was not present so I had no one to defend me. I can't believe such a thing was allowed to take place with no proof. I was a security administrator(I make network accounts all day).

I told the company I work for when they guy doesn't find anything I did wrong, I don't want the job back. I feel insulted. I'm not bitter about being out of work, I'm bitter about how I was treated.

On the bright side of friday, I posted my 1st 4.0 Semester ever and I should be graduating in the spring as the 1st college graduate in my entire family history.Many of you who have read about my struggles understand why this is such a great event.

[drudixon]

Tell the dumbbass to show you access logs. If he can't tell him to f himself.

[bigvin73]

Great on the college grad!!

As for the work thing get used to it if there is suspicion it happens. Where you supposed to be looking at pics at work?

[Augnon]

Tell the dumbbass to show you access logs. If he can't tell him to f himself.

I asked him what did he find, he would tell me. When it happened the company I worked didn't even know anything about it.

[Augnon]

Great on the college grad!!

As for the work thing get used to it if there is suspicion it happens. Where you supposed to be looking at pics at work?

Thank you! These were holiday pictures of the office parties they had. It was on a public file share which is for public viewing.

[JMS72]

I got suspended because I was accused of downloading company data. The guy that accused me was from the dept that monitors data loss prevention stuff. DLP software monitors and record user network usage habits and when it changes alerts go off. He said that I was abusing my network admin privileges. This guy was actually happy to "claim" I was being mischievous.

I'm just wondering what my next steps should be in this situation.


He came over to my desk with two other people and still as of today he still doesn't have any proof I did anything wrong. He stated they started looking at my network usage on Monday of last week. On Monday of last week, I was looking at holiday pictures from the prior years. As we all know pictures are large in size when they are uploaded from a digital camera. The guy even had a meeting with my dept about why I left work early even then he was unable to tell them what I did. He had no proof.


Now here is what sucks about this. I'm a consultant so I work for another company, So I don't have an "HR" to go to. The person that does the account was not present so I had no one to defend me. I can't believe such a thing was allowed to take place with no proof. I was a security administrator(I make network accounts all day).

I told the company I work for when they guy doesn't find anything I did wrong, I don't want the job back. I feel insulted. I'm not bitter about being out of work, I'm bitter about how I was treated.

On the bright side of friday, I posted my 1st 4.0 Semester ever and I should be graduating in the spring as the 1st college graduate in my entire family history.Many of you who have read about my struggles understand why this is such a great event.

Where you supposed to be uploading pictures from a personal camera onto the companies system? Did you ask if this was acceptable to do? You are being paid as a "consultant" by this company to perform a specific task/tasks that probably don't include the above. They have found some unusual activity from a 3rd party consultant working in their business and taken action. I'm sure there is probably more detail around how you were suspended and understand that it may "seem" harsh but my opinion, not that it's worth squat, is learn from your mistake.

Congrats on the grades

[Augnon]

Where you supposed to be uploading pictures from a personal camera onto the companies system? Did you ask if this was acceptable to do? You are being paid as a "consultant" by this company to perform a specific task/tasks that probably don't include the above. They have found some unusual activity from a 3rd party consultant working in their business and taken action. I'm sure there is probably more detail around how you were suspended and understand that it may "seem" harsh but my opinion, not that it's worth squat, is learn from your mistake.

Congrats on the grades

The pictures were already there. I didn't uploaded anything. We also had a holiday part the same week with even more pictures being uploaded.

Thank you!

[Frnkd]

It the "young-guy" reason. Its hard but unfortunately if everything is as you said, the older guy was out to get you....LOL. After all you were also a contracted service. Guess what, that means you probly took someones job.

I can only speculate that some passive-aggressive behavior and attitude may have been in motion.

but than there is always two side of the story.

[Corbi]

ITT we learn the OP was fired for probably looking at porn while at work


JK...or am I? As Frnkd 2 sides to every story and I am personally jaded from yrs of people telling stories that had about 5% of truth to them.

[Jtbny]

ITT we learn the OP was fired for probably looking at porn while at work


JK...or am I? As Frnkd 2 sides to every story and I am personally jaded from yrs of people telling stories that had about 5% of truth to them.

Wait, how else would someone get validation they were wronged if they told the 100% truth??

[Augnon]

It the "young-guy" reason. Its hard but unfortunately if everything is as you said, the older guy was out to get you....LOL. After all you were also a contracted service. Guess what, that means you probly took someones job.

I can only speculate that some passive-aggressive behavior and attitude may have been in motion.

but than there is always two side of the story.

The situation doesn't make any sense. None of my questions were answered and someone got mis-use their power.
I did nothing wrong.

[Augnon]

What part of you job description involves looking at other peoples Christmas pictures?

I was on my lunch period and the topic of old holiday parts came up. It was mentioned that there were some pics
on the dept drive, so I decided to talk a look at them.

[dbx]

Nobody here (in this forum) knows you, yet you come here to air a personal, work related issue now. I see that you're a long time member, so I'm being nice. However, bottom line: there is no way for any of us to know the other side of the equation. As a lifelong manager, in several industries, I would suspect that there is more than your story at play here. IOW....can't/won't advise...............

Good luck.

[FlaIronMind]

Nobody here (in this forum) knows you, yet you come here to air a personal, work related issue now. I see that you're a long time member, so I'm being nice. However, bottom line: there is no way for any of us to know the other side of the equation. As a lifelong manager, in several industries, I would suspect that there is more than your story at play here. IOW....can't/won't advise...............

Good luck.

Nah, your assessment is way too accurate, straight-forward, reasonable and most-likely to be true...

[Augnon]

Nobody here (in this forum) knows you, yet you come here to air a personal, work related issue now. I see that you're a long time member, so I'm being nice. However, bottom line: there is no way for any of us to know the other side of the equation. As a lifelong manager, in several industries, I would suspect that there is more than your story at play here. IOW....can't/won't advise...............

Good luck.

I know people here have been working along time. I was looking for people that had experience similar things and the events thereafter.
I always like to hear about others experiences.

[dbx]

I know people here have been working along time. I was looking for people that had experience similar things and the events thereafter.
I always like to hear about others experiences.

You can go to your HR, state your case...and wait for a response. Since you're "technically" suspended, you may have an opportunity to defend yourself. With some companies? "Indefinite" suspensions (which, I know, you did not cite) are merely a prelude to termination.

Again, good luck.

[theKurp]

The bottom line here is, excellent employees are hard to come by. The fact remains, whether they were making an example of you to instill a lesson in other employees about questionable network usage or whether they were simply looking for any excuse to get rid of you, they didn't value your work highly enough to keep you around.

Rather than place blame on others for your circumstance, I would take this as a sign that you should do some honest self-evaluation about why they felt you were expendable.

[Augnon]

You can go to your HR, state your case...and wait for a response. Since you're "technically" suspended, you may have an opportunity to defend yourself. With some companies? "Indefinite" suspensions (which, I know, you did not cite) are merely a prelude to termination.

Again, good luck.

I'm pretty sure the role is over. I have been on indeed.com since 2pm MT and spent about two hours updated my resume. Looks like I will have one of my degree done too, but I'm just waiting for an degree audit. So things aren't so bad.

[dbx]

I'm pretty sure the role is over I have been on indeed.com since 2pm MT and spent about two hours updated my resume. Looks like I will one of my degree done too, but I'm just waiting for an degree audit. So things aren't so bad.

See post #18 above. He basically, reiterated what I tried to convey in previous posts. He is spot-on.....likely.

[Augnon]

The bottom line here is, excellent employees are hard to come by. The fact remains, whether they were making an example of you to instill a lesson in other employees about questionable network usage or whether they were simply looking for any excuse to get rid of you, they didn't value your work highly enough to keep you around.

Rather than place blame on others for your circumstance, I would take this as a sign that you should do some honest self-evaluation about why they felt you were expendable.

I have been doing this over the past few days, and I wanted the wisdom of this forum to help me.

Everyone please wish me the best luck in finding an even better role.

[whatevergirl]

Does suspended mean fired, though? I work in a consulting capacity now for a firm, for the past year, and if the company suspended me, I'm assuming it would mean that my contract was under suspension pending further investigation. Working as a consultant is cool, but it has its drawbacks...as you say, no HR Dept per se, to go to if you have an issue, and no 401k. But, I work from home, so it's a tradeoff. Interesting you work 'at' the company, but you're not an employee.

Sorry this happened. Seems like maybe they were looking for an excuse to end your contract, you think?

[HairyScandinavian]

Thank you! These were holiday pictures of the office parties they had. It was on a public file share which is for public viewing.

Abuse of admin powers viewing things on a public file share. LOL some times things don't make sense, but perhaps they were just fishing for a reason to terminate the contract. Either way keep your head up, sounds like you're moving up and can use it as an opportunity to find something better.

[Augnon]

Does suspended mean fired, though? I work in a consulting capacity now for a firm, for the past year, and if the company suspended me, I'm assuming it would mean that my contract was under suspension pending further investigation. Working as a consultant is cool, but it has its drawbacks...as you say, no HR Dept per se, to go to if you have an issue, and no 401k. But, I work from home, so it's a tradeoff. Interesting you work 'at' the company, but you're not an employee.

Sorry this happened. Seems like maybe they were looking for an excuse to end your contract, you think?

I think you are right about the excuse.

[Augnon]

Abuse of admin powers viewing things on a public file share. LOL some times things don't make sense, but perhaps they were just fishing for a reason to terminate the contract. Either way keep your head up, sounds like you're moving up and can use it as an opportunity to find something better.

Thank you and I feel you are correct about the fishing.

[whatevergirl]

Thank you and I feel you are correct about the fishing.

yea, sorry

unlike being an employee of the company, when in a consulting capacity, don't think companies are required to have a paper trail, etc before they can terminate your contract. companies can can an actual employee too for no legit reason really, but many still provide a paper trail, in case the employee comes back to sue the employer. unless there was a gross violation somewhere in your contract, prob not much you can do.

like thekurp says too, though. it's a good time to self reflect, if nothing else...but if you feel you were wronged, nothing else you can do but move on.

sometimes, the grass is greener on the other side...so hopefully, you'll make out better somewhere else!

[goranothos]

The bottom line here is, excellent employees are hard to come by. The fact remains, whether they were making an example of you to instill a lesson in other employees about questionable network usage or whether they were simply looking for any excuse to get rid of you, they didn't value your work highly enough to keep you around.

Rather than place blame on others for your circumstance, I would take this as a sign that you should do some honest self-evaluation about why they felt you were expendable.

theKurp said it better than I would have.

[Augnon]

For those of you that state something else may be going you were right.

My former co-worker just notified me they pulled everyone into a meeting and let them know they
are letting 6 people go while keeping 2. And two people had been there over a 1.5 years as consultants.

[Augnon]

bump

[Augnon]

I applied for a role on Mon had phone interview Tues, In-person interview with 6 people Wed and a Job offer Thurs around noon! It all happened this week.

Thank you all for the support and encouragement. This role will be better than anything I've had before! Going through the pe-employment background stuff right now.

[Brackneyc]

I applied for a role on Mon had phone interview Tues, In-person interview with 6 people Wed and a Job offer Thurs around noon! It all happened this week.

Thank you all for the support and encouragement. This role will be better than anything I've had before! Going through the pe-employment background stuff right now.

You should link them to this thread.