Sharing information breach of trust

[snickersknickers]

Today I got to work, opened my email, wandered off to make a cup of tea. Came back, initially just saw lots of unread messages. Put my specs on and realized I was in my colleagues email (we share the same computer and he had not logged out). And there I see it plain as day - he has forwarded an email that was sent to us both from the management team to another member of staff in a different department.

There was nothing untoward or confidential in it - it was just listing some instructions and updates. It was forwarded with a 'Oh god look what they are asking us to do now/here we go again' type title'.

I am fuming as I work closely with him and trusted him - we need to be able to work together as a team and some things need to be in confidence. He had no business to forward such an email on, it wasn't for other departments eyes. For context - There has recently been minor underlying grumps in the team on return to work in the office after lockdown and this kind of gossipy type sharing of information doesn't help. I am trying to smooth over cracks of where people are unhappy and he has breached my trust.

Not sure why I am posting! Just frustrated I can't tell anyone because I was (unintentionally) in his inbox. But glad I know where his loyalties stand as I had no idea. Feel like I want to tell him but can't!

Eh? It doesn't sound like a particularly sensitive email? If an email shouldn't be forwarded it should have handling instructions saying so.

It doesn't sound like your IT systems are robust enough if you can log into his emails either.

Your colleague is allowed to have a moan.

I very much doubt the work you are doing is confidential within your own organisation.

Don't understand why you are so annoyed? It wasn't about you. Are you his manager? Its a storm in a tea cup.

You need to be looking at PC security though and flag with your team about logging out properly. It could have been much worse.

You must have had more than a quick glimpse to read all that.

Lets be clear I didn't log into his emails, he left it open on the screen and I thought it was my email. Yes he should have logged off and definitely needs reminding of this. I didn't read the content of it (I didnt need to as the original was sent to me too) I just saw the title and that it had been fwded to someone else. I don't mind the moaning at all, we all need a moan! It's more the fact that he should not have forwarded it on. Its our job to co-ordinate the team via instructions from Management and in order to do this we do know some of their work/home life arrangements, (all of which are different to each other and some of which are confidential and need to be treated sensitively).

With a single inadvertent glance at his inbox you managed to read the subject line, addressee, and content of an email in his sent folder?

Impressive.

Who's the one breaching whose trust?

Come off it, you were the one snooping, you can't possibly call him out on anything

Sorry, but your explanation isn't logical. You got into work, and opened your emails - which means you'd have to log in to do that. So you logged in then wondered off to the kitchen - hardly security conscious doing that, is it? But having arrived at work and living in to your account you accidentally found that you were actually in your colleagues email, which you proceeded to read. Of course, you saw lots of unread email in the inbox, so you actually read an email in the sent items box.

Want to try explaining again what you were doing snooping through someone's email? It's a bit rich that you are commenting about your colleagues grumps and gossip. Here's you sharing the information on the Internet and gossiping about this colleague and all the other you work with, like the office snitch.

I agree with others that you seem just a guilty of violating trust here as him.

Complaining that he could have sent confidential material, when in fact he didn’t is going to come across as kicking up a huge fuss about nothing I think.

Maybe I am guilty of looking at the email title, but I didn't open it!
It was not in 'sent' it was a reply to the fwd. (sorry, reading back I realized I should of explained that better).

I log on to the computer, I go to google, type in gmail , its searching, I wander off, when I get back its open. His inbox is open, not mine and there it is in the title.
I'm not a snitch, not told anyone, except you lot and I'm not going to tell anyone.
It feels like I've been shown something I did not wish to see. Despite everyone thinking I am in the wrong, can no-one agree that he should not be fwding emails to others?! (He knows he shouldn't do this as its the nature of our jobs).

If you've got a particularly sensitive job, then maybe it's inappropriate to forward stuff. But if you're using shared computers, and gmail, and not having foolproof ways of logging out, you're clearly not doing anything that your employer sees as secret.

In my job, forwarding on emails is entirely normal.

I am still very confused.

You looked at the title, but didn't read the actual email, but know what the content was?
You logged on to the computer with your log in? So how does it open his gmail? And if the company is using gmail then confidentiality is hardly high on their agenda.
I still don't know how the title "Oh god look what they are asking us to do now/here we go again" enabled you to work out the content of the email.
You told no-one - except the entire internet?
You read something that you didn't wish to see? Then you shouldn't have read it?
I'm sorry but the "nature of your jobs" appears to not include any form of email or computer security, so it clearly isn't all that important or secret. Where I work you wouldn't have been able to log on to a computer with anyone's access other than your own, would only have access to what the employer gave you permission to access (so no stumbling into other peoples email), and actually, you'd have been in trouble for leaving a logged on computer to go to the kitchen for a cuppa! That is security. And we forward emails to people all the time. You said yourself that there was nothing untoward or confidential in it.

Is it your job to be smoothing over the cracks of unhappy colleagues? Are you formally responsible for sorting out the "grumps". Because if not it appears that you really need to stick to your job and stop peeking into everybody else's business. Where their loyalties lie is none of your business. You are not the employer. And even if you were, seriously, on the scale of terrible things you could do, complaining about some aspect of your job to a colleague is about par for the course - it employment, not treason.

But you said in your OP that there was “nothing untoward or confidential” in the email he forwarded. So did he actually pass on confidential material?