Staff Abuse Policy

StackLayer says no to abuse. That goes for everyone. It applies to customers towards our staff, to our staff towards customers, and to anyone else who deals with Stacklayer Communications Ltd. Nobody should have to put up with abuse, and nobody gets a pass because of which side of the conversation they are on.

Our position

We expect respect in both directions. We do not accept abuse from customers, and we do not accept it from our own people. If it happens, we act on it, and we do not ask the person on the receiving end to just get on with it.

Who this covers

This policy covers:

• customers, and anyone who contacts us on a customer's behalf
• everyone who works for us, including employees, contractors and anyone else acting in our name
• suppliers, partners and anyone else who deals with us

It applies to everything said, written or sent, on any channel we use. That includes support tickets, email, live chat, phone, social media and review sites, and any message sent to a person directly.

What counts as abuse

Abuse is behaviour that is:

• threatening, or meant to frighten someone
• insulting, demeaning or aggressive, including shouting in capital letters or repeated swearing aimed at a person
• discriminatory, for example comments about someone's race, sex, religion, disability, age, sexuality or gender identity
• sexual, or otherwise harassing
• persistent after the other person has asked you to stop, such as sending the same message many times, or contacting several people about one issue to pressure them
• an attempt to find out or publish someone's personal details, or to contact them at home or on their personal accounts

What does not count as abuse

Disagreeing, being unhappy and saying so is not abuse. Complaining about a fault, a delay or a decision is fine, and so is saying plainly that you are frustrated. Staff are allowed to say no, to say a request is not something we can do, and to explain a decision you do not like, as long as they are polite about it. We want to hear complaints, and we deal with them.

What you can expect from our staff

You can expect our staff to:

• be polite and professional, even when you are unhappy or the answer is not the one you wanted
• listen to what you are asking, and explain our decisions in plain language
• never use abusive, insulting, discriminatory or threatening language
• keep your account information private, as set out in our Privacy Policy
• tell you how to complain if you think they have fallen short

What our staff can expect from you

Our staff are there to help you. They can expect you to be civil, to give them the information they ask for, and to criticise what we did rather than the person trying to help. They do not have to keep helping someone who is abusing them.

If a customer is abusive towards our staff

What we do depends on how serious the behaviour is:

• First instance. For milder behaviour, we will tell you it is not acceptable and ask you to keep to a civil tone.
• Continued or more serious behaviour. We may close the ticket, limit how you can contact us, for example to written tickets only, or have one person handle your account.
• Serious or repeated behaviour. We may suspend or end your services in line with our Terms of Service. If we do that because of abuse towards staff, we will not refund fees you have paid.

Staff may end a conversation, or pause a call or chat, if they feel threatened or abused. This is not a refusal to help. We will pick the issue up again once the conversation is respectful.

If one of our staff is abusive towards a customer

You do not have to put up with it. If a member of our staff has been rude, abusive, discriminatory or threatening, open a support ticket, say it is a complaint, and tell us what happened. Include the ticket or message where it happened if you can.

We will look into it fairly and reply to you. If our standards were not met, we will take action, which may include a formal warning, further action under our internal procedures, or ending that person's work with us, depending on how serious it was. We may not be able to tell you exactly what action was taken, because staff matters are private, but we will tell you that we have dealt with it.

Staff dealing with each other

Our staff are expected to treat each other with the same respect. Conduct between colleagues is handled under our internal procedures.

Reporting

Anyone can report abuse to us. Customers can open a support ticket from the client area and say it is a complaint. Staff can report abuse to their manager. Suppliers and partners can use the same ticket route. Please give us the date, what was said or done, and where it happened, so that we can look into it properly.

No punishment for reporting

Nobody will be penalised for raising a concern in good faith. A customer who complains about a member of staff will not have their service or support affected because of it. A member of staff who reports abuse, whether by a customer or a colleague, will not be treated worse for doing so. We take retaliation seriously, and treat it as a breach of this policy.

Abuse of our services and network

This policy is about how people treat each other. If a customer abuses other people through our services or network, for example by sending spam or attacking another system, that is covered by our Acceptable Use Policy, and you can report it under our Abuse Policy.

Threats and harassment

We may report threats and harassment to the police, whoever is responsible, and may take other legal action where we need to.

Records

We keep tickets and other messages, and may keep notes of an incident and what we did about it, so that we can show what happened if it is disputed or reported to the authorities.

Your responsibility

You are responsible for the behaviour of anyone who contacts us on your behalf, such as your employees, your clients or your friends.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. The version on this page is the current one.