If you were the boss, how would you handle this situation?

To The Office Manager: “Your fired!” in a Donald Trump mask.

I would tell the Office Manager to mind her own freaking business and remind all employees that their emails are not private.

Since Employee B is a good employee, I would probably consider what his/her complaint about me was, and see if I need to address that.

Also, what are your thoughts about Employee A? The Office Manager had no known animosity toward her, but in reading her emails found the incriminating one against Employee B. Should Employee A be told that her privacy was breached? What do you feel your responsibility toward Employee A might be? Would it matter if you knew that Employee A had been undergoing medical tests recently and felt it possible that she may have discussed them in emails to her doctor and/or family?

@nikipedia. Let’s say Employee B didn’t have a specific complaint, but just made a frustrated remark such as “The Boss is acting like a dick today” or “The Boss is driving me up the fricking wall today.”

Hmm… Let me run this through the galactic translator….

This comes out as nosy manipulative problem employee abuses access privileges to read private email to dig up dirt on other employees and gives you a less than flattering snippet from a model employees email. This is where the galactic translator breaks into two branches.

Branch A: Her motivation for giving you this email is to make her look like the “good” employee who is watching out for you, in which case she is a brown nosing cut throat.

Branch B: Her motivation is that she wants to cause trouble for Employee B. In which case she is a back stabbing shrew.

In either case, for employee A the phrase “your fired” seems a reasonable course of action.

As for employee B, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Who out there hasn’t had an opinion about the way the boss runs things at some point during their careers?

Never mind, what @YoBob said.

The bottom line is, as bob said she abused her access because 1. she was given access to other people’s password for a specific purpose which certainly was not to snoop on them and 2. she took something off off one employees computer and showed it to another employee. And she did that to cause trouble. She should be fired for abusing her access to the passwords, for snooping and causing trouble at the office instead of working and because she’s a trouble maker.

As the boss you have to expect that your employees will have unkind things to say…that just comes with the territory. I can only be upset with myself as I did not have a policy in place that specifically outlined privacy policies. I would have a meeting with the office manager and clearly state my new directive and possible repercussions for violating the new policy.

I would also remind each employee that e-mails are not private and that I have access and will read them. That should strike some fear and bring things back in line the way it should have been in the first place. Put everything in writing and have them sign it and put in employee’s file

@cruiser. So you’d reestablish and clarify office policy, which is good. But how would you deal with the three specific employees involved and this specific incident itself? One employee who violated other employee’s privacy and abused her access to passwords (and that could mean yours too), one whose email account was opened and read for no reason and the one who vented about you? Or would you skip that and just make the policy change?

@diavolobella What is the purpose for keeping a record of employee User ID/Passwords on file? What was the reason given to the employees?

I’d call the legal department/company lawyer straightaway, myself! I wouldn’t want to have to say or do something that would leave the company vulnerable to lawsuits from A, B or OM. And I’d get a written email policy out ASAP.

@diavolobella I really can’t do much about verbal or personal opinions obtained inside current office protocols and procedures. It sucks to be boss…I am…and I know my workers say crap about me all the time. As long as they are doing the ir jobs I pay them to do…let them have their fun. If it ever comes to layoff time you know who will be going first!

@Pied_Pfeffer The purpose of the Office Manager having all the passwords is so that if an employee is out, the Office Manager can use his/her password to allow a temp to use their computer or to allow the computer repair service to install programs or fix issues.

As the employer, I would question the employee (office mgr) on her motives. Why was she reading the emails in the first place? What made her choose to use the passwords in this way?

As the employer, I would send an email reminder to all employees, that per company policy, emails sent on the work acc’t are not private, should be short and to the point, are company property and can be used as grounds for dismissal. I would not discuss this privately with employee A or B.

In regards to the office manager, I would sit her down and remind her who the boss is. If she had some reason to think she needed to utilize passwords, she should have run it by you first. Period. I would no longer trust her to be the password holder. She would, if not fired, have this added into her file.

My husband is an Network Engineer. In most cases, he is the password holder for companies. In his experience, when this (situation you are describing) has happened in companies, the person is let go.

1. The office manager would be out of a job.
2. I would let the staff know the office policy on email privacy.
3. I would let the situation with Employee B drop (for reasons well described above). If this person has a brain in his/her head, with the new policy, they may have some awareness that their emails have been read.
4. I would express to staff that, while they are entitled to their opinions and the appropriate opportunities to vent any frustrations in professional ways, if they have creative suggestions or ideas that would improve our business, I would love to hear them.

@Cruiser I think you are missing the part about the Office Manager not having permission to access anyone’s emails and being found to have been reading them for her own amusement. Her stumbling across something unflattering to you that she could use against someone she disliked was pure luck. There was no protocol permitting her to access emails and she may have also been accessing yours.

Thank you. If that is the understanding of all employees, and the office manager used a user ID/password to access someone else’s e-mail for a purpose other than what has been explained, it should be grounds for termination. The OM has broken a rule and will lose the respect of the people that report to her if the word gets out.

I would let the information about the e-mail between Employees A and B go without punishment or bringing it to their attention. If anything, I’d work on my working relationship with Employee B. That’s what good managers do from my experience.

This sounds like grounds for temination of the office manager. Employees always vent about the boss especially if they are on an extremely daunting task so that is to be expected. But what the office manager has done is violate privacy, unless you decided to put in place that the emails will be read then this was expected at some level by the employees.

Where I used to work we were well aware they had a right to read our emails and know what sites we were going to so we knew this could be an issue if we didn’t follow standards.

How many men are in this office? Sounds like a typical catty environment where actual work comes second. I would say to all use e-mail properly and professionally and oh yea we are now looking for a new office manager. Typical bullstuff with e-mail.

I am the boss and know that employees will vent to each other. I try to often tell them they can freely talk to me so problems can get worked out, but I still expect there will be grumbling behind my back. As long as it doesn’t affect their performance or office moral it’s outside of my influence.

Now the employee crossing personal boundaries, this is a problem. Let me say it’s not so simple to fire someone, there has to be a documented track record of issues. So depending on this trouble making employees fire I would likely write her up with very specific instructions of what she did wrong and define why she should not do this again. I would also publish it as a official policy where lines of privacy start and end and send it as a memo to everyone in my company.

I would also likely take control of the password list, so my office manager could not do this again, and I would watch her like a hawk for similar behavior in other areas.

@srtlhill The majority of the employees in this office are men, although I don’t believe based upon my experience over the years, that whether those involved are men or women is relevant.

@diavolobella There was no protocol permitting her to access emails and she may have also been accessing yours. Had you put this in the details, I would have said right away, fire her. I would waste zero time on this matter. She’d be gone. She has no right to the bosses emails/passwords for any reason.

@diavolobella I think the questions presents an unrealistic situation as to why the Office Manager has all the passwords. There would be no reason for them to have that sensitive info if they are not to use them some how someway. Again that being the case that is a loophole that would be more my fault than theirs. I would never give anyone that responsibility to have access to sensitive information if they do not have the permission to use it in the first place.

So my answer was based on there being an unstated reason the Office Manager did indeed have a reason or purpose to have the passwords to email in the first place.

@SpatzieLover Actually, I did say that. If you re-read the second paragraph of the question it states that she had the bosses password and had no authority to access email

@Cruiser The reason the Office Manager had the passwords was stated in the response to @Pied_Pfeffer above. Those were the only reasons. There were no others. The Office Manager had access to the passwords to everyone’s user accounts, which grants access to all programs on that user’s computer (including email). There was no separate password just for the email accounts themselves. The Office Manager logged on as Employee A and read all of Employee A’s emails, not just the one in question. Since there was no animosity between the Office Manager and Employee A that would give the Office Manager a motive to do this, it seems that the Office Manager was merely idly snooping. Thus, if she snooped on Employee A in this way, who knows who else she was snooping on when the mood struck her.

@diavolobella The trust between you and said OM is gone. She needs to be removed from her post.

@diavolobella Again permission or not, she has/had access to the passwords…first and biggest fundamental mistake and I would have to assume responsibility for this turn of events.

I also would question the sanity of a boss who has kept an office manager around so long no one likes and lets personal problems infect the workplace. I’d fire the boss he is doing a shitty job!

Office manager would be fired.

Employee A and B, no action.

Everyone advised to change their passwords

Thank you for your answer. The office majority is men but it sounds like the majority involved with the shady behavior and comments were made by woman. The reason I felt the need to put my comment out there is because most men would handle this situation differently. Men in my opinion would say it to your face and move on. Women in my opinion tend to stir the crap more and not let it go. I realize this may not be a popular opinion but this has been my experience. I’m not being a woman hater I’m just giving my view. I love woman I just don’t like working in an office with a group of them. I will also guess that the office manager has stirred up sluge in the past. Senior, long term employees are sometimes the biggest aggravation in an office. Does she feel threatened by the other employees? She must.
Again if I’m way off base I’m sorry because I’m not trying to stir it. Just my observations from 25 years experience.

Well. Since the Office Manager did have access to passwords as part of company policy and you did not have a written policy on how that access was to be handled, then I wouldn’t fire the OM “for cause” stating that as the reason. You’d lose the lawsuit that would result.

But I would institute a written policy regarding workplace privacy, soonest. This would include non-privacy of emails sent from (and to) company accounts, IM accounts, faxes and voicemails from company machines (and phones), as well as relative non-privacy of the machines themselves.

Then I would tell the Office Manager first, privately (and sternly), that if she ever abused her access privileges in such a way again that she would be fired for cause, and that violation would be listed as the reason. I’d keep her on a short leash because of her inability to get along with everyone in the office (she doesn’t have to “like” everyone, but she has to treat them fairly, with professional respect, and not attempt to stir up shit, using you as her executioner – you do not want to be played by this woman!), and because of this pattern of abuse that has now become clear. (Even without a written policy, she had to know that what she was doing was unethical, and even worse was what she did with the information she gathered.) I think I might suggest that it would be in her best interest to seek employment elsewhere.

Finally, I would explain in an interoffice memo and open group meeting (to handle questions and comments from the group all at once) about the privacy / non-privacy policy, and ask everyone to sign a sheet acknowledging that they understood their lack of expectation of privacy. (I would include on the policy the warning that they should not store personal information on company disks, either.) I would not announce that “I’ll be reading everyone’s emails”, unless you really had nothing better to do – and really wanted to piss people off. It’s enough for them to understand that “any of their mail may be made public” and to write accordingly. (This is so because emails can even wind up in court, too. People need to be aware of what they write, and more careful about it.)

At the end of all of this, I would privately mention to Employee B that it was a memo from him to someone else that brought this all to light. (Don’t leave the person wondering “does the boss know?”—let him know that you do know, and that it’s okay; there will be no repercussions – and does he want to talk about anything?)

@srtlhill The three involved were women, but two of them (Employee A and Employee B) really weren’t involved in actively doing anything. Employee A was a completely innocent bystander. Employee B vented about the boss to Employee A, but no more than saying he was acting like a jerk that particular day and she had no reason to believe anyone would read her message. The only shady behavior was on the part of the Office Manager, and yes, she has been known to break many rules, but nothing on this sort of level. Nothing even close to this level.

@WasCy Employment is “at will” in the State of Tennessee. So it would be unnecessary to give any reason at all for firing any of the employees in question. You can fire anyone, at any time for any reason or none at all. Great answer, especially noting the ethical issue.

@diavolobella Wisconsin is also an “at will” state. She’d be gone. Period.

Thank you all for your answers. This situation I described was based on actual events, although for the sake of brevity and clarity some of the details were omitted or changed. In the actual event, Employee B discovered that the Office Manager had the email before the Office Manager was able to use it. The Office Manager had signed onto Employee A’s computer, read the emails, printed that one, scanned it and saved it in a folder on the company’s shared drive that she mostly uses, but which is public and where she keeps forms we all use. Employee B needed a leave of absence form, opened that folder to get it and there was her email at the top of the list, titled “Employee B email 4/8/11”. (Clever, huh?) Rather than wait for the Office Manager to use it against her, Employee B took the email to the boss herself, confessed that she had written it and apologized. The boss, although disappointed, appreciated Employee B’s candor, realized it was common venting and felt that her coming forward and her obvious distress about it was punishment enough. Fortunately, Employee B and the boss have a great working relationship and we all know she doesn’t really think he’s a dick. She was devastated by what happened and felt horrible, but she owned it. He told her that as far as he’s concerned, the matter is closed between them and they will move forward.

As for the Office Manager, we know she was spoken to but not the details, and what else may happen appears to be pending. It does seem that the position being taken by the boss is that the Office Manager’s offense, paired with her history of issues, was far worse than Employee B’s. We are waiting for things to shake out next week, when the bosses have their monthly meeting. If he’s going to do anything about her, it will happen then because the other bosses will have to have a say.

As for me, I am Employee A. The Office Manager signed onto my computer while I was out having a colposcopy (a biopsy for cervical cancer) and read my emails. She not only read the email where Employee B vented to me, but presumably other emails such as those confirming my medical appointment and those discussing it with my boss and a couple of other co-workers, who I chose to make that information known to. Employee B told me herself about finding the email and I went with her to the boss for the first part of their discussion, to let him know my email had been breached.

Frankly, I’d like an f-ing apology and I’d like the stupid bitch to be fired. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. At the very least, they need to demote her (she’s also the bookkeeper). Someone willing to do what she did to “get” another co-worker doesn’t need to be in a position of responsibility.

BTW, my biopsy was clear and I’m okay. Just mad as hell. :)

Glad to hear you’re okay @diavolobella. Has the boss discussed any of this with you? This sound’s to me like a private session between the two of you.

If I were the boss, I’d be concerned with her breach. Here in my state, we have a lot of “book-keeping” managers that have squandered thousands (up to millions) of dollars of their (relatively small) businesses money by ultimately have too much control over the money/passwords/credit cards of the companies they work for.

@SpatzieLover My boss and I haven’t discussed it beyond me going in with Employee B when she first went to talk to him. I didn’t stay for their entire conversation, but I came with her to verify that the Office Manager had breached my email. Part of how we knew was that you could see from the header that she had logged onto my computer and printed it from my printer. She had no reason to be on my computer because they didn’t get a temp for me since I was only out for the afternoon and she had no reason to read my emails in any case. We didn’t really believe she had gotten permission to read my email to begin with (why would she?) and if she had, she’d have printed it from the server on her own computer, not logged onto mine and printed it there.

None of us can stand the Office Manager. She breaks the rules constantly. She uses the postage meter for her personal mail, takes four breaks a day at about 20 minutes each, is constantly absent, and takes the day off when someone else already has the day off (we aren’t supposed to do that) or tells you that you can’t have time off and then takes the time you asked for herself, after she turned you down. She actually did that to me with my first appointment for the colposcopy. She’s a flat out bitch. None of us can figure out why she’s still here, but she suffers from depression and the word is they are afraid she’ll harm herself if they fire her. It’s ridiculous. We all believe she fudges the payroll and I know they’ve spoken to her in the past about irregularities with it, but she’s still here.

The boss did apologize to me and said it was inexcusable, but I’d like her to have to apologize. And the fact that she knows my medical business infuriates me.

As a boss you have to know that people will be frustrated with you fairly often so Employee B really didn’t do anything that out of line. Plus, it shouldn’t have been read in the first place, really. Office Manager sounds like she is not the right person for the job. I’d have a talk with her and then send out a memo reminding the other employees that their emails are not completely private, just in case.

Your latest response puts a new spin on the situation. If all user IDs/passwords are provided to the office manager in order to cover anything that comes up while an employee is out, then it seems like the OM might have a case. Some messages, be it a voice mail or e-mail might be time-sensitive, and the OM was just trying to cover your workload and keep business running smoothly. Hiring a temp for the afternoon is probably not going to be cost-effect when the OM could fill in.

It is understandable how you are feeling right now. Personally, I would feel the same way. She sounds like someone that does not belong in a management position. She should have discussed with you on the front end whether your e-mail should be monitored or not, be it by a temp or her. The bottom line is that she was given your log-in information on the pretense that it will only be used should someone need to monitor it.

From an HR aspect, the other frustrations with the OM have to be dealt with separately. The manager has to be made aware of them. Has this happened in the past when they cropped up?

If her supervisor wants to avoid a potential lawsuit, one way to go about it is to offer her another job within the company that would better suit her talents and needs. It wouldn’t be in a management position and would require a pay cut. I’ve seen this happen, and the person either accepts and everyone is happy-pappy, or the employee leaves because it is a blow to their pride. Another way is to for whoever is in charge to reorganize the company and eliminate her position while letting her know that she is more than welcome to apply for another job in the company. It may mean that others will have to pick up her workload, but if doled out properly, it’s worth taking on a few other tasks rather than working in the energy-sucking environment she has created.

My heart goes out to you dear friend. I hope that it all works out for the best.

@Pied_Pfeffer No, that’s not how the situation was. She doesn’t cover my work or anyone else’s work either. She hasn’t got the faintest idea how to do any legal work. She doesn’t even sign on the temp, when and if we get one, she just gives them the password. I had completed my work for the day before I left so there was no situation that arose requiring her to access my computer. When one of us is out, if our attorneys need any help, they go directly to the other assistants or paralegals. She’s not in that loop at all.

She also is not qualified to answer any emails I might have received, had I received any (I did not), because she’s not a paralegal, as I am. She would have immediately seen that I had no mail in my inbox. She read my DELETED emails to find the email from the other employee, which had been sent to me several days earlier to boot. She has never checked anyone’s calls or emails while they were out in the past and, quite the opposite, refuses to take any responsibility in that area because “I don’t know how to do that stuff.” Please understand that her motivation is fully understood by everyone and there is no question that she was just flat out snooping.

We really are hoping she’s fired, but if not demoted to just the bookkeeper. However, the receptionist does most of the bookkeeping as it is because she’s constantly absent, so that would leave her with precious little to do. Her “office management” duties are non-existent because she just doesn’t do any of them. It’s a sad situation because they are so worried she will off herself (she’s threatened) if they let her go.

Thanks for the good wishes. I’ll be fine, but I really resent her using my email for reading material just to amuse herself.

Thank you for the additional information. It provides more back-up (if I were the manager) to terminate her.

I’ll post back when the situation is resolved. The partners meeting is coming up soon, so if they are going to finally take any action about her, that will be the time.

@diavolobella Do you have someone that handles your computer network within your company or do you outsource that to a firm?

Your Office Manager has access to the passwords of everyone in the office, including yours. You have discovered that she has been signing into other employees email accounts and reading their emails. She has done this without cause and without your knowledge or permission. You have no policy in place which states that employees have no expectation of privacy or warns that their emails may be read – because, although you are within your rights to do so, it has been your decision not to.

You have an established policy in place regarding reading employees emails. There was no need to announce the policy as it required no action. Presumably the office manager knows of your decision not to read employee emails. Your Office Manager has egregiously violated a position of trust. Fire her immediately. No one else has done anything deserving even a reprimand.

@SpatzieLover Our IT is outsourced.

@diavolobella Then, you need to find out from your boss why the IT company isn’t holding your password instead of the OM. There is no need for someone within your company to hold all of that info.

@SpatzieLover They aren’t going to pay the IT company to come to our offices every time we hire a temp when someone goes on vacation to log the temp on so she can use our computers, so I can see why she might need to have it for that situation. It is a shame that she is simply a person who cannot be trusted.

For the record, we’ve all changed our passwords. She doesn’t know that…unless she’s tried to log on to someone’s account again…(snicker). We gave our new passwords to the receptionist, whom we all trust.

I can understand your anger at what has happened. It appears that the Office Manager was snooping around to gratify her curiosity at best and to find some dirt she could use against you at worst. Saving the email into a shared folder others had access to was downright stupid.

Your company needs an email policy. Work emails cannot be considered private but only authorised employees should access them and only with good reason. That aside the Office Manager has abused a position of trust and should be prepared to face the consequences.

@flutherother It’s weird. I’m not sure why she was reading my email and there wasn’t anything in it that put me in a bad light, only Employee B, as it was an email she had sent to me where she was venting.

The Executive Committee met today and the Partners meet on Friday. Interestingly, today the Office Manager put letters in the mail and for the first time EVER, they had stamps on them rather than her helping herself to company postage by using the meter. Someone had to have said something to her about it, but I’d really love to know what else they said. I have a feeling she got her ass handed to her in the Ex Comm meeting.