*sigh* again I reiterate as a disclaimer before the rest of this post: BEALE IS GUILTY. FUCKING GUILTY. I'M NOT ABSOLVING HIM OF ANY BLAME. HE SHOULD BE FIRED.
Pfitzy, I can't agree with that. The basis of Payten's article with the alleged texts was that if he kept his nose clean, the matter would not be escalated. If he didn't, it would.
He was given ample opportunity for it to not ruin his career.
OK, so looking at it from another angle: Holding something over another employee is fucking despicable in my book. It is what some would refer to as blackmail. Its what my Mum would do when I was a kid if I still wanted to have Christmas.
If you were going for a good promotion with another employee at your company, and you had some dirt on them, would you use it to get ahead? If the company was downsizing and it was between the two of you, would you use it to stay employed?
Because what you're saying is it was perfectly acceptable for Patston to hold information of a personally offensive nature close to her chest, for use at her discretion at a later time. Over a remark about a t-shirt, over a spilled cup of coffee, over any perceived slight.
Beale is a dickhead (to the point where he probably thought it was forgotten about), but would YOU want your employment hanging by a thread for months because one of your peers knew something?
Imagine a universe where that text DIDN'T go to Patston, but only his team mates. They have a laugh and think no more of it (again, a mistake, but go with it). Then Beale does something to one of those blokes that isn't very nice. That bloke decides to go to Link with the "evidence" and this situation blows up from a different instigator.
Is that OK too?
As we were speculating in the office: if you pranged your Dad's car, or smashed your Mum's favourite keepsake, you'd better go fucking tell them straight away, because the arse kicking you'll get for trying to hide it will be far worse.
The preferred alternate universes stack up like this:
A) Beale should never have sent that shit
then
B) He should have gone to Link as soon as he realised, then apologised to her in front of him and the other managers. The process could have been done behind closed doors, fines/bans could have happened in June, controversy could have been avoided. Most importantly, it would have gone on Beale's record officially, and not been held by another employee only.
then
C) What we have now.
I'm not trying to make Patston the villian here, but when the ARU combs through the ashes and tries to put down the cause, they sure as fuck would want to communicate to their direct employees, in no uncertain terms, that sending this shit will not be tolerated, and failing to notify management about receiving this shit will be viewed with extreme prejudice.
The former should take care of the latter with any luck. It really depends on the fuckwit count.