I’m located in the UK and need some advice about a work situation. I’ve been employed at my current company for about three years now.
Recently I got called into what looks like a disciplinary meeting scheduled for this Friday. I think it’s because I’ve been referring to our workplace AI assistant as a “clanker” in various conversations.
Our organization rolled out this AI helper tool not too long ago and it hasn’t been working very well. Both staff and clients have complained about it. Because of these issues, I’ve mentioned in chat messages and during team calls things like “this clanker AI system isn’t doing what we need” or “the clanker bot is filling out the wrong request forms”.
When HR reached out asking what I meant by that word, I explained it was just internet slang I’d seen in memes online.
Now they want me to attend a formal meeting with my boss, the HR director, and they’ve said I can bring a union representative if I want.
Is it actually possible for them to fire me over using insulting language about artificial intelligence? Can they really take formal disciplinary steps for this kind of thing?
Maybe I’m worrying too much and it’s actually good news, but I want to be ready either way.