To be angry at work colleague who opened an envelope addressed to me and had CONFIDENTIAL written on the envelope?

[johnbarrowmanlovesme]

She knew it contained my recent job appraisal, which (she must have suspected!) did contain quite a few complaints about her! I wasn't in work the day the Secretary handed out the envelopes so she (my supervisor) was handed mine & asked to pass it on to me the following day.

Anyway,to cut a long story short, she handed me the envelope which for various reasons I suspected had been tampered with so I went to see the Secretary who was shocked that it wasn't her writing on the envelope
This person had taken the envelope home, opened it, read it then put it in a new envelope & tried to copy the original handwriting, I would never know
DH thinks this is a sackable offence, what do you think?

No, guess again

Hara, I did think that last night while going over it all with DH, will have to inspect a school envelope

Glad you're not alone in this. Have you called? If not, do it now!

dinner lady?!!

"I don't think that the secretary has done anything wrong BTW - she trusted that mail would get to the recipient without being tampered with, a normal assumption."

i was joking (kind of) when i said i blmae the secretary - but if she typed up the report and knew the comments in it were about your supervisor - she was a bit silly to give it to her as you weren there

though i guess we like to think that we can trust the people we work with

i bet she is also shitting her slef, hence the all smiley waves and hello's

def take this matter further, even if it only means she has a written warning

private and confidental and personal on an enevlope mean you dont open it unless you are that person named on the letter

"I don't think that the secretary has done anything wrong BTW - she trusted that mail would get to the recipient without being tampered with, a normal assumption."

i was joking (kind of) when i said i blmae the secretary - but if she typed up the report and knew the comments in it were about your supervisor - she was a bit silly to give it to her as you weren there

though i guess we like to think that we can trust the people we work with

i bet she is also shitting her slef, hence the all smiley waves and hello's

def take this matter further, even if it only means she has a written warning

private and confidental and personal on an enevlope mean you dont open it unless you are that person named on the letter

oops

I do see what you mean, but she wasn't to know that the supervisor would do something so underhand (I always read your name as Blonde shave - more fun I'm a little bit worried about what that says about me )

I did eventually phone but she is in a meeting until 4pm. Am going to see her first thing tomorrow after dropping off dc. No sleep for me again tonight then

The secretary feels terrible but I have told her I don't blame her, she trusted this person to give me the enveope not ever thinking she would open it.

(I always read your name as Blonde shave - more fun I'm a little bit worried about what that says about me )

everyone always does

this blonde waxes and has fun

Don't worry JB, you've done nothing wrong. I hope it goes well.

BlondeShave

Thank you everyone
x

johnbarrowman, Unison would be a good union for you. They are vwell-represented in the public sector so there should be some experienced reps and officers floating around. If you are teaching staff then there are teaching specific unions.

Where I work it is pretty common practice to open confidential mail, unless it is marked confidential. You'll need to open with the Head about why you think it was opened maliciously rather than in error. If there is history then you should share this too. I suspect you need to be invoking the grievance procedure rather than shouting for a disciplinary if the school doesn't take this further.

duh, marked personal and confidential, not just confidential.

Hi Johnbarrowman, just read through this thread and what strikes me as odd, (if your supervisor claims she only opened the letter because of a coffee stain), why she felt the need to copy the original handwriting (as I read from your OP), or actually why she wrote on the envelope at all? And shouldn't she have mentioned the coffee stain to you the next day when she handed to you the envelope?
And I agree with the grievance procedure.
Good luck

I know it wasn't opened in error as she opened hers in front of the secretary.

I have complained about this woman in the past but only verbally so they know about her. I was so glad to put in in writing for my appraisal, never thinking the stupid woman would read it

Nor sure what the grievance procedure is?

Will google Unison.

thanks llareggub

Hi johnbarrowman, grievance procedure - all you need to do is state your complaint in writing (letter/email). You don't even have to mention it as a letter of grievance. Then they have to arrange a meeting with you (it's the law) where you can discuss about it, and if you like, have your supervisor present at the meeting (but only if you want to!). Hope this helps

...and if you're not happy with the outcome, they need to arrange further meetings with you until the matter is resolved. If they don't follow this procedure they are breaking employment law.

That's really good advice you have there. Do that. Take the official route since the informal route has been ineffectual.

Unison won't help officially with an existing issue, or anything that happens within x amount of time from your joining (IIRC), but it would be worth your joining now to get help with any future incidents with this person.

Unison won't officially help until you've been a member for 13 weeks, but I know of plenty of occasions where the rules have been bent.

You don't have to mention the grievance procedure but I would advise that you do. You'll need to specify what you are unhappy with; her for opening the letter and the history or the school for not addressing the issue.

The school will have a grievance procedure, ask the Head for it. Be clear about what you want as an outcome, if this very formal, and sometimes stressful procedure, is what you want to do.

Lots of good advice there, thanks everyone.

I am going to go to my meeting with the Head in the morning & see what happens. If she isn't planning on taking any further action then I will have no choice but to start a grievance procedure.

A friend that I have been telling about it all reckons I shouldn't go into work until they have sorted it out to show that I'm not going to be fobbed off but I don't want to cause trouble & make them short staffed, so even though I really don't want to face that auful woman on thursday, I'm going to have to go in really.

I think you are right, you do have to go in. Not going in will make everything worse, I think. If she harasses you, or bothers you, start recording it in the form of a diary and report it to the Head.

I have got my diary ready! Just wish I'd started recording things a year ago when I started the job, I'd have a lot more to say then.

Never mind.

I am the only person to stand up to this bloody woman & am determined to get the powers that be to sort her out.

Something that I haven't mentioned is that my job share who does three days a week, is very young & inexperienced but IMO is doing brilliantly, hard worker I picks things up quickly but she constantly gets undermined by the witch. She doesn't know what is going on but I think I will speak to her & tell her & advise that she keeps a diary too.

Watch out witchypoo, we're out to get you!!

Glad you're taking this further. Hope you can get something sorted.

Good advice about the grievance procedure. I don't think you can demand she receives a formal warning - any disciplinary outcome will only be as a result of a disciplinary investigation - however you can request that the matter be dealt with as a disciplinary matter, however I would think that such action will ultimately be for the Head to decide whether to pursue.

It is worth remembering that the standard of proof in employment matters is 'the balance of probabilities' and to be quite honest, I think her explanation is preposterous - explore the issues with the Head raised by other posters - why did she 'copy' the handwriting, and not use her own? Is there coffee on the appraisal? Why did she not mention to you or anyone else about the unfortunate coffee incident?

It may also be an opportunity for you to be seen to offer positive suggestions on how things should be done in the future to prevent a recurrence - you could suggest that to avoid such an unfortunate 'accident' with coffee, that confidential mail is double enveloped in future (in line with the Government Protective Marking Scheme).

Finally, I would be very careful about who you discuss this with in RL, including your jobshare colleague - telling her to keep a diary could be seen as whipping up opinion against the woman - the last thing you want to be accused of. You don't want the thing turned round so that you are being accused of unprofessional behaviour.

Good luck tomorrow.