More of a WWYD if you were my DH...

[ellangirl]

My DH is a manager in an office. Whilst looking for some information he needed he came across emails sent between two members of his team, and quickly realised they were of a personal nature involving massive hatred and criticism mostly of him, but ask of other members of staff. They include personal nicknames for office staff, criticism of how lazy people are, how he is rubbish at his job, how lazy I am because I don't work etc. they call people all manner of names incl lazy bitch, Cnut, tosser etc. what should he do? These date back 2 years or so, and could in theory be seen by anyone in the office s they were not deleted ...

I think I'd print them out and 'anonymously' put them up on the notice board.

Were these emails being sent via the company email system? and are the employees current? If so then it is gross misconduct and they should be reprimanded for it.

Depending on the office set up I would be tempted to report them to HR.

Is this the company email ?

If so, they face gross misconduct charges and I would dob them right in

Why should the rest of us obey all these workplace rules if some people shit all over them ?

he should report, definitely

How did he come across emails sent by and destined for other people? Or was he looking in others' email accounts deliberately?

My DH found similar kinds of things in some emails at his office, some about him, but maybe not as strong as what you're describing.

He ignored them.

He's the type of person to brush this kind of thing off anyway, but he justified it by remembering that he says things about people in the office (to me mostly ) so it's just other people doing the same thing.

They are stupid to put it in print and unprofessional to say the least, but he just kept what was said in the back of his mind when dealing with the people and made sure he didn't do the same thing and leave evidence

Not like my mum who was slagging off the woman she sat next to at work to someone working a couple of desks away, only to send the email to the woman she didn't like!

She had to face up to what she did and brazen it out, apologised to the woman, but still worked next to her for a few years after I think

Company email yes. He was looking for information on a certain client which th person sending emails deals with. These emails were in a general unsorted email folder, not sure why, they person in question must have put a whole bulk lot of emails in the wrong place. He can't look directly in anyone else's email account, so these emails could have been seen by anyone (if they looked in that folder)

Gross misconduct if using company mail system

In DHs case Graham, if the person's not there and there's some info in one of their emails, someone else goes and looks.

Everyone knows their emails can be read by someone else, it's just them forgetting that and not deleting.

For a start, I would print them out and take them home whilst I decided what to do. They could get deleted somehow so best to have it covered.

As for what to do, I don't know.

Gross misconduct

Speak to HR I don't think you can assume any confidentiality using company email, it will be in the policy somewhere have a look.

I feel really sorry for your DH OP if he has to continue working with these people knowing what they've said.

Saying someone's lazy because they don't do the work they're supposed to is a pretty legitimate opinion to have, but branching out into discussing what they think of you is downright nasty.

What did your DH think of them before he found the emails?

In which case, ellangirl, his best move might be to pull the individuals concerned and tell them that the content has troubled him far less than their level of intellect and common sense (and theat he'll bebearing that in mind at their next annual review), advising them to ensure that any further derogatory emails are filed properly.

That way he'll confront the culprit/s whilst making them look and feel about 2 inches tall.

I took out disciplinary proceedings on one of my team members when I found emails containing similar.

My decision was based on other factors as well - the woman had a history of bullying that had not been dealt with by other managers. If the emails had just been silly, gossiping emails - I would not have bothered - but these were really quite nasty.

** "and that he'll be bearing that in mind". Sorry for the typos.

He should follow the company procedure for misuse of email etc.

Is there an HR department? If so, I'd definitely forward them/escalate it to the relevant area and leave it to them and then give the people involved the evils every time I saw them.

As an aside, I nearly lost out on a good promotion because of, er, inappropriate emails between myself and a couple of account managers. That was in my wild youth; I'm now a respectable married housewife, so sadly, no flirting with anybody, ever .

send to HR

Yep, It's gross misconduct.

I'm sure we all go home and have a little moan with our friends/partners about work things, but that is within the privacy of your own home. Using work resources to complain and bitch about colleagues isn't on.

Definitely go via HR (but make sure the evidence is preserved first just in case someone gets wind and deletes them).

I had this issue with a member of staff. She avoided gross misconduct procedures by the skin of her teeth, but did face a formal interview which was documented and put on her file.

He won't be able to effectively manage them know he knows unless he takes action and if the other members of his team find the emails and that he knew about them and they complain to HR he could face competency procedures himself.

Plus they need to be punished for being dumb enough to slag people off in emails and not delete them

If its a company email system then it should be reported to HR and would more than likely be classified as gross misconduct.

Is it a large company? If so, does the company have a behaviours framework that employees are to adhere to?

In my company, this would be, and has been, taken very seriously and more than like result in dismissal.

It's disgusting behaviour and he should take it to HR. It would be a good idea to print them in case they realise what's happened and delete them.

What are they like to his face?

Hmm. I think he's always known that there's no love lost between him and the main perpetrator. My DH doesn't particularly like the bloke in question, however he has never been other than civil to him, and all criticisms of him have been made within official frameworks I.e. appraisals, review points on work etc.
I think what is bothering him, and me for that matter, is the personal nature of these emails. I forgot to mention the whole bit about how fat and greedy my DH is, and how the office junior should give another team member a BJ to stop him being so grumpy...

As to why I am involved in several email exchanges is even more baffling, to the point where they discuss what the f I do all day as I'm clearly too lazy to work and incapable of looking after my DS, and my DH has to run home to wipe my arse as I'm too lazy to do it. Have never even met the men in question.

My DH is their manager, so I guess a certain amount of criticism of one's seniors happens in all workplaces, but this is outright vitriol. I don't know how he can continue to manage them effectively knowing that this is going on, and these are just the ones he stumbled across, what else is out there that was deleted?? As claire says, other members of the team could find what has been written about them too, which would be awful for them quite apart from anyone else. For example one lady has had a serious illness for a while and they were discussing how she had better not croak it at work because there's no way they could face mouth to mouth if she did.

I think a call to HR would be appropriate then, and it would not be obvious that it was him, it could just have been IT dept who found them for example.