An employee secretly recorded our meeting. Where do we both stand?

The answer Just Ask, HR gives

Detailed Dan — Structured and thorough — every step in order.

Three separate questions are tangled here — untangle them and the position is clearer than it feels.

1. Is covert recording misconduct? Usually yes — it typically breaches trust and confidence, and most disciplinary policies (check yours) treat it as such. But context matters: tribunals have distinguished an anxious employee recording to keep an accurate record of their own meeting from someone leaving a device to capture a panel's private deliberations. The second is far more serious — potentially gross misconduct.

2. Can the recording be used against you? Quite possibly. Employment tribunals regularly admit covert recordings of meetings the employee attended, if relevant (Phoenix House v Stockman is the touchstone). So the practical assumption for every manager is: run every meeting as if it's being recorded, because it might be.

3. What should you do now?

1. Stay calm about the content. If what you said in the meeting was fair and professional, the recording is evidence for you.
2. Decide whether to treat the recording itself as a conduct issue — proportionately, and via the normal process, not as retaliation. If they're mid-performance-process, tread carefully: a heavy-handed response reads as victimisation.
3. Ask for a copy. If they rely on it, you're entitled to hear what it actually says, not their selective quotes.
4. Fix the future: state in meeting invitations and your policies that recordings require consent, and offer the alternative — a note-taker and shared minutes. Removing their reason to record is more effective than any warning.