I disagree that he shouldn’t be enforcing company policy! Now, firing EVERYONE is obviously a terrible tact. But why should someone who did something they weren’t supposed to be doing skate, just because of the difficulty of training a replacement?
Why is what they did an issue, other than it’s against company policy? Does it take away from the person’s ability to do the job? Does it take money from the company somehow? (that is, is the person doing it INSTEAD of work, rather than on their breaks or something?).
I’m not saying turn a blind eye, but firing them, if they’re otherwise really good employees? Why not just put measures in place that prevent them from doing it?
My previous company was pretty lax about online stuff, so (during your own time, or downtime only of course), you could surf general stuff like your personal email, yahoo news page, even the Dope was allowed (after I petitioned for it with IT), but there were a lot of sites that when you first tried to click on them, an ominous big blue and red “FORBIDDEN CONTENT by COMPANY policy X6!1Q9…whatever” would pop up…it made you feel guilty even when you were doing legitimate research. 
The solution would be to send a link, and what the content was supposed to be, to our IT department and they’d okay it and then everyone could have access after that. Obviously certain sites (like porn) would never be okayed by IT or company policy. Maybe you could put some sort of online tool like that into effect, company-wide, so that you’re not just singling out the potential guilty party.
I mean sometimes you have to work within the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law.
So put the IT and technological measures into place, and then talk to the person you think is the culprit. Tell them something like “look, this won’t fly, but you’re a good employee and we want to work with you, not against you, so knock it off because (of XYZ technological measures) next time when you’re caught, that’s it, you’re gone”. Then line out some rules and make their continued employment contingent upon that.
The keylogging programs and such will help you know if/when they blow it.
It’s not that the person that violated company policy should get away with it. It’s that they *did *get away with it. The manager doesn’t know who did it, and has no way to find out. So the violate gets away with it. This time.
And, you know, the purpose of company policy is to make money for the company. If the violation of company policy didn’t cost the company money, or expose them to legal liability, or annoy other people, then it really isn’t such a big deal. Policy exists to serve the company, not the company to serve policy.
What’s wrong with holding a meeting, and saying, “Someone has been pissing in the breakroom coffee pot. We don’t know who did it, but from now on we’re putting a camera up, as well as a few other things that I’m not telling you about. So next time one of you fucksticks pees in the coffeepot, you’re gonna get caught, and you’re gonna get fired. Comprende?”
Lemur-I absoltely agree that company policies are due to $$ considerations. (aren’t ALL policies about $$$) IMO, if the perp isn’t fleshed out now he’s gonna keep pulling this shit, and he needs to be tossed on his ass before he costs the company any more $$$.
One thing not to do is what was done to a lady I knew back stateside. She and her co-workers were gathered together one day by the boss and told someone had stolen a watch or bracelet, something like that, and he hoped it would be returned, all the while staring straight at my friend. She wasn’t the thief, and the boss’ gaze boring into her shook her up. A lot. Really a lot. The boss could see that and afterward told her: “Look, I know who stole it, and I know it wasn’t you. I stared at you because I couldn’t bear to look at the real thief.”
So don’t do something like that.
The mention of it would cause anyone who wasn’t ignorant about polygraphs to decline to parircipate. I’d tell anyone who asked me to take a lie detector test to fuck right off because I know that they don’t work.
Another vote for “I bet the OP is being a petty power hungry middle management tyrant” until further info is provided.
Sorry, but “trust me, it’s really really bad” isn’t good enough.
Knowing they’re bullshit and don’t work, I’d decline to participate, even though I’d done nothing wrong.
As to the OP though: Is there a reason you can’t just make it known to everyone that the Unacceptable Act has been noticed, and everyone is hereby informed that Unacceptable Act is Unacceptable and measures have been put in place to catch whoever does it next time?
To put it another way: What actual harm was caused by the Unacceptable Act? Not “It’s against the rules!”, but actual harm? Did a client see the Unacceptable Act and complain/withdraw their business? Did the Unacceptable Act result in corporate secrets being made available to competitors? Has news of the Unacceptable Act been published in the media?
What if the unacceptable act is truly vile? Child porn, say. And the police being called would potentially harm the company, so it is not an option? The OP reads differently then, and nobody would use phrases like “petty tyrant”.
If it’s truly vile like child porn then you better damn well call the police and who cares about damage to the company. See how well that that worked out for the Catholic Church.
Putting everyone in a room and telling them that they will all be punished for what one person did isn’t even how you should deal with children. It is a petty tyrant technique which even the OP realizes now.
Yes. Was this offense a crime? Then call the police. Does this offense present a health or safety risk to people or could represent a major business loss if discovered by a client? Then it’s serious and you have to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Short of these kinds of situations, you don’t “need the guilty party to confess and resign.” You just need to institute policies that will prevent it from happening undetected next time.
If it’s a serious crime like child porn, then call the police. Period. That’s what criminal law is for. There are a lot of things that could potentially harm the company, including someone finding out that they refused to call the cops when they suspected a serious crime because they were afraid of public relations problems.
OK, the perp *needs *to be tossed. How do you make that happen? The only way to make that happen is to fire everyone.
I understand that you wish you could fire the perp. But you can’t, because you don’t know which employee is the perp. The perp got away with it, not because you don’t care, or because you didn’t take the violation seriously, but because they didn’t leave any evidence. If someone stole your car, that person would need to go to jail. Except if you and the cops don’t catch the person, they aren’t going to go to jail, because you failed.
Let’s assume for a moment that this is a serious offense that could expose the company to serious liability or monetary loss, not some bullshit like someone ate someone else’s sandwich or downloaded porn. You want to fire the perp. OK. Perfectly sensible. How do you do that?
Since you can’t figure out who the culprit is and you can’t interrogatethe whole office, this is what you do as a manager:
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If an actual crime has been committed, you contact the police. Then THEY will interrogate any suspects.
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You contact (via email so there is a discoverable record) your immediate boss and your HR contact, describe the issue in as much detail as possible, your respose and ask for their recommendations.
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Send a broadcast email to the group describing the incident, the seriousness of it and the potential consequences if it happens again.
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Set up a follow up team meeting to discuss the issue and potential consequences.
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If the situation warrents it, have HR set up a “sensitivity training” session with the group.
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Take whatever reasonible measures are required to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Policy changes. Restrict access to shared resources. Require individual logins. Whatever makes sense.
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If your company provides it, offer counselling sessions to anyone who was traumatized by the incident.
Now you should be able to send everyone back to work.
Excellent advice. You don’t “need” to “make” someone confess and you don’t have to fire the whole unit.