So I (29F) am a supervisor at a pretty large virtual company. So every communication is either over Teams or Email. I have an employee, “Kim” (49F) who basically likes to stir the pot in whatever way she can. Processes changing quickly? Kim posts a long paragraph in Teams saying how unfair it is that they’re receiving such lack of notice from management (me) and such, then ends it with something she assumes will be perceived as “positive”. She also likes to add hashtags to the end of her messages like #askingforafriend or #amitheonlyonewhocares
She’s done this at least 10 times over any little thing. The messages are super passive aggressive and anyone can tell they’re directed straight at me. She also likes to try to get anyone involved by tagging people in her messages and bolding or underlining her points. I just work there, it’s not like I have control over anything that changes.
Recently another employee “Ted” came to me and said that Kim’s behavior was making him uncomfortable. I asked why & Ted showed me a bunch of screenshots where Kim was bad mouthing me, talking about how I don’t know anything and I’m a terrible manager and I single her out, calling her unprofessional. Yes, I have had a few convos with Kim asking her to stop the messages as they were unprofessional. Anyway, Ted said that he didn’t like being approached with this, but didn’t want me to say anything.
A couple days later, another employee came to me for the same thing since Kim posted another passive aggressive message in Teams saying “it’s crazy how management doesn’t tell us anything until the last minute and expects us to agree with changes, etc”. So at this point I had to have another conversation with Kim.
I called Kim (with another supervisor as a witness) and discussed her behavior. I told her that a few employees had come to me (didn’t say who) and said they were extremely uncomfortable with her behavior and that it needed to stop. I said that I understood her frustration but she should be airing her grievances with me and no one else. Well, Kim didn’t take that too well and has now opened an HR case against me saying that I’m singling her out and calling her unprofessional when she has been nothing but “positive”. I have all of the screenshots for HR. HR is investigating the issues. Now I’m worried that I will lose my job over Kim’s nonsense for even bringing this to HR.
Also, if Kim gets written up by HR for this behavior, it could impact her ability to promote, her ability to bonus, and participate in any side committees.
AITA for calling Kim out on her behavior and calling her unprofessional since this could impact her job?