To share the contents of a "confidential" email?

[LibidinousTurkey]

I've recently taken over as leader of a voluntary group. This is a new thing for me and I'm currently in the process of handover so there's quite a lot up in the air.
So today I received a fucking horrible pointed email criticising one of our long standing members, amongst other total tosh concerns. This was addressed personally to me and labelled as confidential.

Now I'm unsure of the etiquette involved here. The allegations are unfair and (in my eyes) unfounded. They could potentially lead to the member in question being driven out after many years of tireless work.

At the moment I'm sat uneasily on the information but would have no qualms at all about attributing all the points raised to the sender. I'm not about to spill the beans to anyone at the moment but should the time come, WIBU to share this information? Or should the addition of the word "confidential" allow the sender to say whatever the hell they like?

I think you do need to let the sender know that you are not prepared to treat any communication as confidential. Tell him that if there is any substance to his allegations he needs to be prepared to make them on the record and to produce supporting evidence. If he isn't prepared to do either you have no choice but to treat his allegations as utterly unfounded.

You do need to cover your own back anyway, ideally by discussing it with your immediate superior. If you haven't got one, discuss it with your deputy.

Just reading this made my heart race. I have been involved in various charities for many years and whilst 90% of the volunteers I know do incredible work , every organisation seems to have a few squeaky wheels who use the charity to pursue personal agenda and vendettas. It is so hard to work with this and retain good staff when everyone is a volunteer and the manager doesn't have the economic power they would have with paid employees. It can fracture well meaning communities and leads to great hurt all round.

I think Dinosnores is on the right lines. Acknowledge the email. Tell her you are considering her concerns and cannot commit to keeping them confidential if you feel further action is necessary. It might be good to ask what outcome she thinks would be the best for everyone concerned.

If you think she is an asset to the charity , thank her for her concern. If you think it would be good if she stormed off in a huff you could miss the bit out!

Well done on stepping up and taking a tricky role. I hope it works out well.

Keeping something confidential doesn't neccesarily mean that you don't say anything to anyone. You can keep it confidential within the management team or trustees or whatever is relevant to the structure of your organisation. Maybe there is sort of umbrella organisation to yours that you can go to for advice. If you really are the top of the chain, then that's what your deputy is for.

Stick to your policies and procedures.........or don't you have any?

This might be a good time to get some prepared.........

Are you certain the allegations are false??

And who would you be sharing them with?

It's really hard, isn't it?
Sharing up the chain (if there is one?) is the way to go.
If there isn't, then I would say think hard about sharing if sharing includes with the person being slagged off. I totally get that you feel what is being said is an injustice, and you want to be totally open and honest. But hearing (reading) what is said about one, even by lying snakes, can be devastating to confidence.
Would it work just to respond, say you've no interest, disagree with the points made and will not be taking the matter further? Invite the sender to leave if they are so unhappy?
Good luck! Hate, hate this aspect than can too often arise in voluntary organisations. Yes, it happens in the workplace too, but seems even more hurtful when everyone is giving up their time out of the goodness of their hearts.

I suppose ... reply to Horrid-Emailer that you'll look into it all (no specific details how), then take steps to discretely look into all the allegations. Keep records of what you did & what you found.

Presuming you find nothing to substantiate tosh-claims, then ignore Horrid-Emailer until they approach you & you can reply that you're satisfied for now & that the issues are resolved but will remain vigilant.

I've been Chair when we had a stirrer, argh......!!

The issue is that the emailer and spouse are fairly new to the group. Rather than giving it time to see how things pan out and actually getting to know people beforehand, they have crashed in with fantastic/ ludicrous ideas for improvements. Working in tandem seems to be their weapon of choice and others are feeling pushed out and excluded.

The subject of the email is not a friend, though I have known her for some time now and believe her motives to be good. She is prone to having a somewhat abrupt manner and will can be terrier like when she has a cause in sight, but the accusations of bullying and tantrum throwing are well short of the mark. She herself has received an email (which I have seen) accusing her of similar from the other spouse.

In any case I have advised the sender that in future any correspondence labelled "confidential" will only be treated as such if that is indeed the case. DH advised me to drop the bit about "confidential" not being a green light to behave like a knob

What outcome does the emailer want? I assume they asked you to do something, rather than simply sending a list of complaints and accusations.

I would:
a) ask the emailer what they expect/want you to do - specifically are they raising a formal complaint. If they are making a formal complaint then the accused must be given the right of reply and the opportunity to present their side of things. To the committee. If this is made clear to the emailer, you may find that they back-track pretty damn quick. If they are not making a formal complaint, ask them what the purpose of their email is.
b) ask the emailer to provide evidence - talk of bullying and tantrum throwing sounds very subjective. This needs to be handled objectively.