How do we fix this?

Question

An employee who is young and new got in an argument with a competitor. He apparently posted some incredibly rude things then deleted it, but not before the competitors screenshoted it and reposted it. Now people are saying they won't use our company. He worked for us for 2 days. How do we handle this? We are a small buisness that never had something like this happen before.

Update:

Apparently he called people ret**** and f****** snowflakes. We've already dealt with him.

Eva · Accepted Answer

You fire him and tell him exactly why.  Make a private and public apology to your competitor, maybe even send them lunch and tell them you do not find that kind of behavior at all acceptable and that the person no longer works for you.

babyboomer1001 · Answer

Fire him.......................................................

? · Answer

The suggestions to think of a snappy comeback or otherwise engage in the mudwrestling match are ridiculous. That's how people without a clue deal with unfavorable social media posts.

Your best advice is to hire a good internet reputation firm. The first thing you need in order to build an effective response is to understand exactly what, if any, damage has been done. Only then can you take effective steps to mitigate.

The thing you don't want to do is to start running crap up your own flagpole to remind or inform everyone of the competitor's charges. There's a good chance this won't cause you any material damage and should be let lie until it fades away. If this is doing damage, you need a marketing campaign to combat it.

D.E.B.S. · Answer

You post that your company does endorse blah blah blah and that the employee was only with your company for 2 days and no longer there.  You also figure out how to tactfully say that while you unfortunately made a bad hire and have quickly rectified it, you are highly disappointed in your competitor's bad choice of judgement in choosing to report without having a professional discussion with you first.

Sandy · Answer

apologize for the employee and give the company a discount or a freebie you can afford, to keep their business. this stuff happens all the time to companies. large corporations have departments specifically to deal with this kind of thing.

Pearl L · Answer

maybe you should fire him

How do we fix this?

6 Answers