Filed under: letters
Dear Ms. Theologian:It has recently come to my attention that my boss reads my personal emails. I know this because when she misread one of them and thought I had taken a day off for reasons other then I’d stated. When I asked her why she’d think that, she told me she’d read my email. And THEN she continued to discuss other personal matter of mine she’d read through my email.
Now, all of my emails could be shown to my mother, if you know what I mean. But I still don’t want my boss to invade my privacy in this way. If I say anything about it, I could lose my job because she’s a bit nuts. What do I do?
Violated in the inbox
Dear Violated:
Ms. Theologian understands that you feel violated, but you need to stop emailing anything that isn’t work related from work.
You have no privacy on the phone, in voicemail, in email, and on your screen. If you can’t do that, your options seem to be:
1. Talk to your boss about this. You say she’s crazy and you might lose your job though.
2. Talk to your boss’s boss about this. You might also lose your job this way though.
3. Try to find another job (within the company or outside of the company).
4. Find an internal way to reconcile this. We like this solution the best.
Ms. Theologian, for example, would delight in writing all emails as if her boss would read them.
“Dear Prudence: My boss looked especially stylish in her tweed skirt. It was so 1970s, but so now!”
Sounds crazy, no? Sometimes Ms. Theologian finds that the sane among us must go undercover to survive in the modern workplace.
Peace,
–Ms. Theologian
Many workplaces have policies in place which tell employees there is no privacy right to anything created with company resources, as you say, including email and voice mail.
I like your idea about writing each email for the audience. Tee hee.
Comment by Anne Bauer 12.13.05 @ 11:54 amTotally. It’s in the employee handbook, usually, not that anyone reads it.
But even if it’s not in writing, apparently you still legally have no privacy and can also be dismissed for no reason.
Lovely.
Comment by Stephanie 12.13.05 @ 1:06 pmLeave a comment
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