is it legal to record a conversation in work with your boss without them knowing

Hi
The context is i believe my boss is putting me under undue pressure and bullying me . I have not made a formal complaint mainly out of fear of retaliation.

My question
I am wondering is it legal to record a face to face conversation in work with your boss without them knowing?

I want to do this to try to achieve 3 things
1) to see how i sound as i am trying to be more assertive ( after some counselling advice) to stop feeling so bad
2) to let my wife hear it to see if i am being over sensitive
3) to have evidence (and a record of what s said) should i need it to "prove" bullying



thanks for advise on question

It is of no use whatsoever unless you make the other person aware that you are recording.

Covert recording should not be required and in my opinion reflects poorly on you, have you a union rep or work colleague that can sit in with you.

Every job has a disiplinary process, are you in this process ?

Hi there,

I don't think you can use the tapes themselves but what you can do and what a solicitor advised a friend of mine to do was to tape the conversations (without them knowing) and take a note of the exact wording and you can then use it to quote it back to whoever exactly what was said - that is if it goes any further i.e. to the EAT or wherever it goes.

Staff

not in any disciplinary process the issue is bullying and reasosn i already stated very clearly

I got some legal advice years ago on a work related issue. Advice was that it was not illegal to make the recording but could be illegal to use it! The issue to consider is whether or not the alleged wrongdoing is more serious than the act of taping and using the recording!