I have received someone's disciplinary letter by email by mistake............

[Nailgirl]

So I've just opened my personal email account.
It is clearly Nail Girl @ gmail or whatever.

The email says "Dear Nail, as discussed details of the disciplinary for next week etc -see attachments" from Joan (insert another name).

Panicking -I hope the attachments as of course my first name is Nail.

Except this is a whole different person, name, address, medical details, and documents, OMG.

The email is signed off to her "best wishes for your wellbeing".

Not my company etc. -OMG.

I've emailed them back and said "Nail Girl is not Nail BonJovi -as should have been obvious from the email address. I suggest you contact Nail Bon Jovi pretty sharply and tell them that her confidential disciplinary stuff was sent to the wrong email. Obviously I opened the attachement due to the informal tone of the email that addressed me by my first name.

I will be printing off these documents tonight and posting them first thing in the morning to her address.

I asssume that this would be the right thing to do.

You just need to reply to the person who sent them saying they were sent to the wrong person.
Definitely don't print them or send them anywhere!

All you need to do is reply explaining the error and the delete the email.

You absolutely should not be printing and posting any documents.

You reply to the email informing them of their error and then delete it. That’s it.

If I was the intended recipient I would want to know every detail had been sent to a stranger. I would post them.

Unless you know this person, I would let it go. Printing them off and sending them to her is not your responsibility. They should resend the email to her, but it's not your problem.

Why would you print them?

Reply and get them to withdraw the email. Its clearly an error, maybe a breach of gdpr but don't print and post them anywhere.

I had another child's info on my nursery observation app appear, their personal info, home address, observations etc. I told the nursery twice, they sorted it and apologised, problem solved. Mistakes happen.

It’s unacceptable for confidential information to be sent to anyone else “in error”. It’s just not good enough and the person who did it needs to be reprimanded.

@Russell19

Reply and get them to withdraw the email. Its clearly an error, maybe a breach of gdpr but don't print and post them anywhere.

I had another child's info on my nursery observation app appear, their personal info, home address, observations etc. I told the nursery twice, they sorted it and apologised, problem solved. Mistakes happen.

Mistakes happen.

I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss such “mistakes”.

Let's face it, the person being disciplined would have huge leverage over the company with this info - there is now potential for a massive claim under GDPR.

I guess, OP, it's up to you whether you want to give them the ammunition for that or not 🤷

Do not print and send anything
Respond to the sender of the email and then delete.
Why would it even enter your head to do anything else?

@ButterboxSpoon

Let's face it, the person being disciplined would have huge leverage over the company with this info - there is now potential for a massive claim under GDPR.

I guess, OP, it's up to you whether you want to give them the ammunition for that or not 🤷

Some people are always looking for an angle.

God it’s clearly a quiet week over there ! Delete , forget

maybe a breach of gdpr?! Bloody great massive breach. And If you don’t let the recipient know about it the company aren’t going to let her know they’ve done it! I’d absolutely let her know.

Not the point of this thread, but a warning about clicking links in emails and downloading attached documents. Don't do it! Malware people. This wasn't an email you were expecting. It wasn't from your company. It was signed off weirdly 'best wishes for your health' or similar. So if I have a bunch of Gmail accounts that I want to attack with malware, all I have to do it put the first part of the email name in the salutation and people like the OP will download it.

I will be printing off these documents tonight and posting them first thing in the morning to her address.
I asssume that this would be the right thing to do.
Why do you assume that OP?

Would none of you want to know if someone had wrongly emailed a hugely personal document to the wrong address?! I bloody well would, especially if it’s a disciplinary matter.

I would want to know. So yes print it and send it

The company who sent the email in error have a legal obligation to inform the intended recipient of the breach and will need to inform the ICO. Do not print the documents and do not send to her.

I know they have a legal obligation to, but I would eat my hat if they do.

Yes, reply and delete. Have you never made a mistake at work? If you don't know the person concerned, no harm done.

@Haggisfish

maybe a breach of gdpr?! Bloody great massive breach. And If you don’t let the recipient know about it the company aren’t going to let her know they’ve done it! I’d absolutely let her know.

I’d let the person in question know, because if they have behaved badly to her in the past and are claiming it’s all lies/her fault then this is actually quite relevant.

You just need to reply to the person who sent them saying they were sent to the wrong person.
Definitely don't print them or send them anywhere!

Why not? This person is going through a disciplinary at work yet their work place is guilty of a massive data confidentiality breach.

If you just let the sender know it will be hushed up and forgotten about. The intended recipient will be none the wiser.

I would most definitely send it by post to the intended recipient and I would let the company know what I was doing.

Why would you print and send it? How much more would you like to humiliate this woman?!

@Haggisfish

Would none of you want to know if someone had wrongly emailed a hugely personal document to the wrong address?! I bloody well would, especially if it’s a disciplinary matter.

Not by a complete stranger posting me private info that she has clearly read , no.