I had a similar situation whilst working at a PC manufacturer. The underlying reason was due to a number of colleagues starting a company on the side. More specifically, we had registered a company to do some web development for a "Mom & Pop" type company. However, the project never got off the ground and we didn't actually do anything productive with the company.
The company we registered was unrelated to the business of selling PCs, but the end result was that I was escorted from the building along with another colleague who was also involved.
Two more of my other colleagues involved in the aforementioned side-enterprise got written warnings. It became apparent afterwards that we had been given an ethics workshop some months before that hinted that we should declare any outside company interests, and those interests would be judged as to whether they were conflicts of interest or not. Sadly, we neglected to mention it.
Two further colleagues who were not involved with us were also removed on the same day. I have no idea for what reason. Several months later half the team got made redundant.
The dismissal process itself is familiar to the Quora description, except I also had a guy from legal in the room. He looked exactly like Marsellus Wallace from Pulp Fiction, but wearing a $3000 Armani suit rather than a ball gag.
His opening gambit was to slam a huge pile of A4 on to the VP's conference room solid mahogany table. As he glared at me, he told me that this was every single email that I'd ever sent or received while working for said company.
It became clear that they had been monitoring all internet traffic in and out of the workplace. Whether that was legal at the time in my country is dubious, but it wasn't worth fighting at the time.
On my dismissal letter I had a strange reason given for the dismissal. It stated that I had been dismissed "for misusing company resources during work hours". It was related to the use of work email to organise the handful of times we got together as a group outside of work. "Hey shall we get together this evening for a few beers and program a bit?" kind of thing.
The others who got warnings had something different noted on their warning letters. It specified that they had not declared outside interests in an external company and that this was against company ethics rules.
After leaving the company I started up a web development company. I continued to use the company that we had registered and continued to use it for several years.
Several years later I tried to update my company director record because I had changed my home address. A letter came back, stating that I had never actually been registered as a company director. They enclosed the initial application form from three years previous. The form was completed, but I had neglected to sign it. Oh the irony.
It suddenly became clear that they had probably checked the company records and noted that I wasn't registered as director. They probably thought that on top of everything I was trying to be a wise guy. Sadly, it was just incompetence.
Lots of lessons learned, but the golden rules are:
- Never do anything on your work computer that is not
related to your work
- Always pay attention to ethics workshops and your
employment contracts.
- Always be aware that if a company wants to cut head
count then heads will roll. It is cheaper to fire
people than make them redundant.
- Marsellus Wallace has a new job slamming conference
tables with piles of A4.
- After completing a form, always remember to sign and
date it!!