I have just been sent an email by mistake,

[iwantitalltobenormal]

AIBU to be massivley hurt and pissed off from the email I have just read which was sent to me by mistake?

at the begining of this year, I offered to do a monthly blog for our small team, so other departments are more aware of what we do internally - (manager thought it was a great idea ) baring in mind this was my first attempt at this , and by no means a mandatory task , I did it all on a power point presentation , I also do not claim to be a professional blog writer and I really enjoyed doing it, and putting it together, I sent it to my manager back in March, It took a little while due to also carrying out my day to day job.

fast forward to today ( baring in mind I had no response or feedback on my blog, whether it be positive criticism or any type of feedback) someone has unfortunately sent me a long email trail between my line manager to his line manager slating my work on the blog I had done and slating how unprofessional it the content is - but in a really distasteful way , and nasty.

I feel hurt, upset and belittled.

How about a passie aggressive,

"Thank you for the feedback"?

OP I'm sorry they did not appreciate your efforts...

I think you have been given some really good advice on here re tackling it in a calm and professional manner and they are going to feel truly terrible when they realise what they have done.

I really feel for you, it must have stung when you read the comments. However, there's always learning in situations like this and you now know that your blog has not been well received and you can take something away from that. In my experience so many managers are absolutely rubbish at giving feedback and your manager might have just said 'yeah, it was fine' and then you would have been none the wiser. Unfortunately/fortunately you now know what some people in your organisation really thought of it and you can do something with that information. Why didn't they like it? What was missing, what should have been in there, was it tone, length etc.

Are you aware that your post to us had a spelling error? It's bearing in mind not baring (but spell checker would not have picked that up). Your blog might have had spelling and grammar errors in that made the recipient wince and if you know that you can make sure someone else sense checks and proof reads for you in future.

Even better if you are now oh so very graceful about all this - 'I really wish I hadn't read that email chain as I found it very hurtful but I will at least take on board the comments as it will enable me to make sure the next piece of work I do is better. Can you give me some specific examples that I can work on?' Honestly, you will make them feel sooo bad! Good luck, I hope they are mortified!

Just to let you know OP, no matter how senior these people are, they don't have any right to maliciously or underhandedly discuss other members of staff via company email. Especially as it appears that other people in the company have also been privy to those emails. At this stage, I can easily imagine those two 'senior' members of staff looking for a way to sack the person who mistakenly sent you that email - because it was 'confidential'. Well tough shit, they shouldn't have been passing around communications like that anyway.

You definitely need a better job, with nicer people. You clearly have drive and enjoy finding ways to add to the place you work for. I don't believe these people deserve you.

Seems to me it was a genuine mistake. But your line manager didn't give you feedback and instead got someone else to do it without telling you.

I think I would forward the email to your manager and say that in future you'd appreciate all feedback promptly, negative and positive, so that you have the chance to improve.

Woah, so your line manager slagged you off to his boss over email and then accidentally sent the whole email trail to your colleague?

That’s dreadful. I would maybe have a quiet word with HR. Focus on the fact that your line manager sent the whole thread to your colleague and now you feel super awkward and undermined. Tread carefully, you haven’t done anything wrong, but you could end up putting yourself in the firing line if you make a fuss.

Has your colleague sent the email to you only or are your 2 managers cc'd on it also because if they are cc'd they are probably shitting themselves already.

I believe you have sent this email in error and if you would like my efforts directed elsewhere please find another way of communicating that.
This is perfect. Make them sweat it.

Supersimkin2, your post is patronising, supercilious and generally offensive. 'illiteracy'? Really? 'panic ye not'? I don't think the OP is panicking, thanks, just fucked off.

Can you give examples of the words?

When I say I’ve seen it before, it was me who forwarded it. It was a genuine accident.

A colleague in audit had asked for some cumbersome information and pointless questions, I forwarded it to the team to answer, and it went round the houses, when I got it back the last email was “blunt, the answers are and then listed” I forwarded it to said colleague with here is the info you requested.

Later someone with a horrified look told me to read the chain as in it some people were saying “x seems to be struggling to do their job, these are pointless questions, which he is making a habit of, he is coming across as highly incapable” and others agreeing.

I was mortified I’d sent it to him, but he never commented. The pointless questions did stop though. However the comments were spot on.

Telling me to read the chain in future wouldn’t have changed anything, I’d simoly have apologised, I never made the comments, and him trying to address it further would simply have made it a big thing as those concerned would have stood by their comments, causing him more issues.

Email HR and suggest that they could ask your manager's manager to begin some training about using professional language in all company communications? It's usually a requirement stated in the Staff Handbook.

Do you think it was really accidentally sent to you, or was your colleague trying to let you know what's been going on behind your back?

I'd wonder whether they were too embarrassed to tell you what they'd found out so thought it easier to forward the e-mail conversation....
Either way, it's horrible and the line managers have been v. unprofessional...and stupid, because their unprofessional behaviour is clearly recorded in black-and white!

@Supersimkin2

I can't even wrap my head around what made you believe that was an appropriate comment to make. Ever, not even just under these circumstances.

And don't even get me started on what such a lack of empathy and tact 'makes you look like'

I would email my line manager and say

"I would have preferred some direct feedback to me when I completed the blog and passed it to you-with some constructive criticism. If you felt it was that bad -you could have told me in a professional way. Instead, I have found out via the email received below. I have no problem with pushing myself out of my comfort zone, as the blog wasn't compulsory and I did it on top of my usual workload - I hope you can see my point. But if you thought it was that bad - I would have appreciated a meeting and some guidance and support. Thanks.

It’s not unprofessional to discuss an employees poor performance up the supervisory chain, what is unprofessional is that it was not kept confidential.

Op, what were they saying?

This is the crux, because it might just be you’re hurt so taking it badly, or it might indeed be they were nasty but I suspect this is one you need to take on the chin as there is no benefit in whatever actions you could take other than they being more careful for you not to see in future. They will stand by the blog being unacceptable to them.

@RUOKHon

YANBU! That’s awful. How horrid.

I think you have two options.

You could acknowledge it and say something like - ‘I received this by mistake. It sounds like we should probably have a chat about the concept for the blog. Maybe we could agree a framework for each post so that it meets everyone’s expectations?’

Something like that.

Or you could pretend you haven’t seen it and innocently email him asking for feedback. He might look favourably on you if you give him the opportunity for you to both pretend it never happened.

I think the top point in this post is perfect. You acknowledge that you have seen it and are responding professionally unlike their example.

They should have raised it with you if your work is not up to scratch but it seems furlough has gotten in the way.

Forward this email to a personal account then you always have it just in case this is a work one and behind the scenes they delete it (has happened in a company where they got IT involved to remove something very damaging they sent to the wrong person and deleted it from their work email but they could prove they had done it as they forwarded themselves a copy to their personal email).

I would email the person who sent it to you asking did they know about the whole email chain that was included. And I would leave it there. Wait for that person to realise and then raise it with your line manager.

See if they make the first move. It also lets them stew in their shit for a bit too.

Any reply or email to line manager should wait until you have had time to sit on this for a day. Collected thoughts are much better.

Would you like to give clear guidance on what you would like me to do to improve it, or shall we just bin the whole idea

They have removed the task from the op and given it to her colleague.

Maybe we could agree a framework for each post so that it meets everyone’s expectations

Again, they have removed it from the op and tasked a colleague, they don’t wish her to do it anymore, she would look daft asking how to improve something or for a framework of something she’s no longer responsible for.

“Panic ye not”

Shudder.

I can’t for the life of me understand how the third person managed to accidentally copy you into this email chain tbf.

You’ve had some good suggestion but in all honesty I think a good old fashioned “Hello, I think you’ve copied me in here by mistake” will deliver the necessary SHIIITTTTTTTT reaction from these fuckers.

We're not sure who called the grammar police. But we've stood them down now. Hopefully things will get back on track.

@Supersimkin2 People don’t tend to worry so much about perfect SPaG when anonymously writing a post on a forum.

Don’t be snide.

Your colleague who sent it to you 'by mistake' - how do you get on with them?

Do you think they did it to give you the heads up or to hurt you and embarrass you.

Personally the only person you should be speaking to IMO is your own manager - if you do intend to speak to them.

I don't know if this is a hill to die on though - you can take it as feedback going forward but I can understand why you are so hurt - I would feel exactly the same.

Your colleague should not have even seen the email (or does your colleague have her manager's inbox and saw it from that)?

Sounds awful though. Hugs to you.