Page 5 | To have read her emails?

lumpkins · 2023-04-23T18:57:38+00:00

I work with a lady who has been at the same workplace for 30 years. She knows everyone, gossips about everyone… you know the type! I started 2 years ago and we work very closely together. She is incredibly kind to me, offering advice, cups of tea, giving me the ‘heads up’ on who is a good egg, who is not etc. For various reasons I’ve started to suspect that my colleague is not as nice to me behind my back as she is to my face. One example of this would be her offering to do something to help me and then going to management to complain about me for asking her to help me when it isn’t her job (I am her senior) This has happened a number of times now. She left her emails logged in so I took the chance to have a nose… not the best move I know, but I was feeling like I was going mad! So I uncovered email after email of her complaining to various people about me, all over the workplace. Most of the things she had complained about were made up.. she is making out I am a complete bitch to her but it’s completely false as we get on fine! I wanted to take my findings (screenshots of 12 emails) to management to complain as my name has been repeatedly tarnished in her complaints, but I was wrong to look at her emails so should I just forget it and move on??

Twinsmummy1812 · 23/04/2023 21:42

Honestly I would go cold on her. Stay this side of polite and professional and otherwise have no personal or otherwise conversations with her. If she wants any ammo on you she’ll have to make it up. And I’m sure others know what she’s like, if someone at work is bitching about everyone me else you can be sure she’s bitching about you too.

Original poster

lumpkins · 23/04/2023 21:42

readbooksdrinktea · 23/04/2023 21:27

All you have managed by reading her mail is to prove her right.

What rubbish 🙄

OP posts:

Original poster

lumpkins · 23/04/2023 21:47

How presumptuous. I’m not sure where you read that I engaged with her gossiping. Pointless comment

OP posts:

Cantstandbullshitanymore · 23/04/2023 21:47

Eggseggseverywhere · 23/04/2023 20:01

I would print them off with her identity revealed and pin them up in the office one night.

Deny all knowledge..

Haha you know they can track who prints stuff now right? Unless her office use those small less advanced printers, the modern ones are connected to the network and keep a log of everything.

Iwasafool · 23/04/2023 21:48

Itcouldhappenabishop · 23/04/2023 21:41

Hang on. Are you her manager? Where I work (banking) it is well known and perfectly legitimate for management to have access to employees emails. They regularly check sample emails to check for any regulatory violations etc. we all know that anything we write on a work email or chat could and quite possibly will be read by management, compliance etc.
Work emails are that - work. Not personal. It's company property and the company is entitled to know what their systems are being used for. I assume my line manager has a regular snoop through my inbox. Anything scurrilous is for personal channels only!
I'd investigate the legal situation here. You may technically have perfectly good reasons to read her emails.

I agree with this, it isn't the same as someone's personal account, it is work. Or it should be.

ErinAoife · 23/04/2023 21:48

You know where you stand now with her because of her emails. Stay professional and as the proverb say "Keep your friends close; keep your enemies closer.”

Original poster

lumpkins · 23/04/2023 21:51

Thank you so much to those who have made productive comments, they are most appreciated.
Those of you that have taken the opportunity to swipe at me and assume and make presumptuous comments… are you ok? Do you need anger management?

OP posts:

MargaretThursday · 23/04/2023 21:52

LeefPeeper · 23/04/2023 20:50

At my work you have to use a code to print anything, so they would definitely know who had printed them

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Take the screen shots home and print them there I'd have thought. That's not traceable.

mainsfed · 23/04/2023 21:53

Itcouldhappenabishop · 23/04/2023 21:41

Hang on. Are you her manager? Where I work (banking) it is well known and perfectly legitimate for management to have access to employees emails. They regularly check sample emails to check for any regulatory violations etc. we all know that anything we write on a work email or chat could and quite possibly will be read by management, compliance etc.
Work emails are that - work. Not personal. It's company property and the company is entitled to know what their systems are being used for. I assume my line manager has a regular snoop through my inbox. Anything scurrilous is for personal channels only!
I'd investigate the legal situation here. You may technically have perfectly good reasons to read her emails.

What a load of shit, you can’t just spy on people. From TUC:

Covert monitoring at work without prior warning is a serious privacy intrusion and is likely to breach workers’ privacy rights.

If your employer is going to monitor your email and internet usage, you must be clearly informed of this in advance and of the reasons for such monitoring. This is normally done through a policy or the employment contract.

JuanFanjo · 23/04/2023 21:54

Everyone on their high horse about integrity isn't at the end of their tether and fearful for their job as you are.
You know it was wrong but I can totally see why you did it.
Classic manipulation. Making the victim look like the bad one.
It must be dreadful working with her. "Grey rock" her from now on and absolutely do no let her "volunteer" for anything again.

Amsooverthis · 23/04/2023 21:55

I haven't read the whole thread so someone may have already said this, but you can ask for a freedom of information search whereby any emails or info which mentions you by name has to be made available to you. This way the emails can come to light. They may have her name redacted but even still you will see the information legitimately

Vee1987 · 23/04/2023 21:55

You should not have read someone’s emails and you’ll come off worse.

This reminds me of when a relative of someone I know wrote a document entitled ‘HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL’ knowing their nosy colleague would open it. When opened, it simply read “[Colleague’s name] is a c**t.”

They could obviously never approach the author of the document because that would be admitting what they did.

Isthisit22 · 23/04/2023 21:55

LeefPeeper · 23/04/2023 20:43

You could submit a SAR for all emails containing your name, and then raise it when you are given them. Don’t admit to reading them first

This.
plus in most organisations, she’d be in more trouble for leaving her PC unlocked than you for reading them.

mainsfed · 23/04/2023 21:55

lumpkins · 23/04/2023 21:51

Thank you so much to those who have made productive comments, they are most appreciated.
Those of you that have taken the opportunity to swipe at me and assume and make presumptuous comments… are you ok? Do you need anger management?

The more you post, the more I feel for your colleague.

And presumptuous doesn’t mean what you think it does.

Sn1859 · 23/04/2023 21:56

Exactly. Unfortunately her manager was the ringleader of said group so of course it all went in their favour. It turned out for the best though. All of the bad reviews they blamed her for were still coming through long after she left. Not good for a GP surgery!

UsethisUsername · 23/04/2023 21:56

Do not admit you accessed her emails. Irrespective of what you found you can be dismissed for gross misconduct.

Submit a data subject access request. If something comes up that you can then complain about do so.

Distance yourself from this woman and limit communications to email.

Sn1859 · 23/04/2023 21:57

Pudmyboy · 23/04/2023 21:32

Wow!! It's not as if her eyes could have avoided seeing it!

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Exactly. Unfortunately her manager was the ringleader of said group so of course it all went in their favour. It turned out for the best though. All of the bad reviews they blamed her for were still coming through long after she left. Not good for a GP surgery!

Hellno45 · 23/04/2023 21:59

Could you do a freedom of information request and request all emails from her with your name on them?

determinedtomakethiswork · 23/04/2023 21:59

Did you read the replies? I'm wondering if there's anyone you can absolutely trust that you can talk to. Don't admit reading the emails but say that you've heard she is saying awful things about you. You can just refuse to say who said it.

DrMeredithGrey2023 · 23/04/2023 22:00

Could you speak to a senior member of staff, keeping it vague, and say that you've heard a few whispers from people who do not wish to be named that she's calling your work ethic in to question, so going forwards you'd like to keep a paper trail of all correspondance with her, and would like to cc them in?

Also - do people not have printers at home? 😉🙃

Itcouldhappenabishop · 23/04/2023 22:01

@mainsfed it is not a load of shit. We are made perfectly aware that our emails are monitored. It's possible in numerous industries that management may have a legitimate reason to read employee emails. It will be made clear but plenty of people forget. Which could be their case for the OP - her colleague may have been informed but never read the detail of the contract or whatever.

Mari9999 · 23/04/2023 22:01

OP, after 30 years, it is unlikely that some in upper management do not know about her. She is likely there because they have no legitimate way to get rid of her.

Count your experience as a lesson learned. Begin the process of distancing yourself from this woman. Chances are this has been her long term MO and her complaints are likely ignored.

If she has been there for 30 years, and has seen less experienced employees move up the ladder while she has not advanced to a more senior position has probably made her vindictive and spiteful.

mainsfed · 23/04/2023 22:01

Itcouldhappenabishop · 23/04/2023 22:01

@mainsfed it is not a load of shit. We are made perfectly aware that our emails are monitored. It's possible in numerous industries that management may have a legitimate reason to read employee emails. It will be made clear but plenty of people forget. Which could be their case for the OP - her colleague may have been informed but never read the detail of the contract or whatever.

OP cannot rock up to her computer and read her emails.

Scary that people think this is ok.

qwertykeyboards · 23/04/2023 22:03

Curiosity killed the cat! Never acceptable to go through someone’s emails.

lepricon · 23/04/2023 22:04

I worked in admin for a private company for five years, was a horrendous place to work. Such a toxic environment where I was bullied by my supervisor and manager on a daily basis.

One weekend I was doing filing and my manager, the silly woman, had left printed out personal messages from my personal Facebook in the filing cabinet, obviously forgetting I was in over the weekend.

My heart sunk. These were messages of me completely and utterly slagging both my supervisor and manager off, saying really mean and awful things, slagging off how they look, complaining of managers bad breath, however they were sent to my best friend over private messages via Facebook messenger so irregardless of what I said, they were in the wrong.

It turns out, that I had left my Facebook logged on (I was allowed to use personal Facebook to get the company short notice cover) and my supervisor had noticed this and went ahead and read all my messages. She then changed my password on Facebook so I was locked out for days and had to send them a picture of my passport to allow access to my account.

I raised a formal grievance about this of course, I brought along my union rep. My manager and supervisor would not take any responsibility and still put the blame on me saying that I shouldn't have said those things and then completely lied and said I was never allowed on personal Facebook for company cover and so I'd breached internet use policies for being on Facebook at work. This was completely false.

There was no internal HR, HR was outsourced to keep management right and after the director of the company 'investigated it' she was best friends with the manager - it was never upheld.

They then tried to move me to the kitchen to work after five years in the office. Suffice to say I sent them all an email telling them to fuck off and exactly what I thought of them all. Don't regret it to this day.

I'd say you don't have a leg to stand on.