Boss' Email

[retailemployee]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Illinois
I work in retail and at my work we have two computers which all of the store employees use. Recently I have been attempting to get a promotion at work and I was offered the position. However, I was offered significantly less money than what I know others in the same position earn. I politely declined the promotion by sending an email to my manager.
Hypothetically, if my manager did not sign out of his work email on one of the work computers and I saw that he and two other managers had said some unkind and untrue things about me and my work performance, could I sue the him/all of the managers involved/the company? Or could I get in trouble for invasion of privacy?

 

[Proserpina]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Illinois
I work in retail and at my work we have two computers which all of the store employees use. Recently I have been attempting to get a promotion at work and I was offered the position. However, I was offered significantly less money than what I know others in the same position earn. I politely declined the promotion by sending an email to my manager.
Hypothetically, if my manager did not sign out of his work email on one of the work computers and I saw that he and two other managers had said some unkind and untrue things about me and my work performance, could I sue the him/all of the managers involved/the company? Or could I get in trouble for invasion of privacy?

You know fine well you have no right to access, even if someone else stays logged in. Doing so and then raising a fuss about it will likely result in one thing: getting fired, and a guarantee that they'll give you a (legal) lousy reference.

Giving an opinion and saying unkind things isn't illegal. They're allowed to share their opinion that you're not quite promotion material.

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Illinois
I work in retail and at my work we have two computers which all of the store employees use. Recently I have been attempting to get a promotion at work and I was offered the position. However, I was offered significantly less money than what I know others in the same position earn. I politely declined the promotion by sending an email to my manager.
Hypothetically, if my manager did not sign out of his work email on one of the work computers and I saw that he and two other managers had said some unkind and untrue things about me and my work performance, could I sue the him/all of the managers involved/the company? Or could I get in trouble for invasion of privacy?

Hypothetically, if your manager did not sign out of his work email on one of the work computers that is used by all store employees, and you saw an email written by the manager that had defamatory statements about you in it then, yes, you could potentially sue the manager (and anyone else who communicated defamatory statements about you).

It would not be an invasion of privacy if the email was left open for view by you and others.

But I agree with Proserpina that there is a big difference between defamation and critical or unkind statements. And not all defamatory statements will support a defamation claim.

If this is not a hypothetical, and you actually saw an email of the type you described, it might be smart for you to polish your resume and brush up on your interview skills and start looking for another job.

 

[retailemployee]

Thank you, quincy, for answering my question.
I am looking for a new job, as I believe I am not being treated fairly at work. But I was curious about whether looking at the email was illegal on my behalf or not.

As far as the defamation claim, if what was said was about my age (not my years of experience), is that possibly workplace harassment?

 

[Proserpina]

Thank you, quincy, for answering my question.
I am looking for a new job, as I believe I am not being treated fairly at work. But I was curious about whether looking at the email was illegal on my behalf or not.

As far as the defamation claim, if what was said was about my age (not my years of experience), is that possibly workplace harassment?

Once more, it's not illegal to make fun of, or otherwise discuss, your age. It's generally not even illegal to harass you, either - unfortunately an idiot boss is allowed to be an idiot boss. The employer also doesn't have to treat you the same as other workers.

If you are being unfairly singled out because of your age - as in, fired - you might have some recourse.

 

[quincy]

Thank you, quincy, for answering my question.
I am looking for a new job, as I believe I am not being treated fairly at work. But I was curious about whether looking at the email was illegal on my behalf or not.

As far as the defamation claim, if what was said was about my age (not my years of experience), is that possibly workplace harassment?

Reading an email that is open for view on a computer is not an invasion of privacy. It is like reading a postcard. If, however, you had to do anything to access the email and open it so that you could read it, this would be like opening a letter addressed to someone else - and both opening a letter and opening an email can be considered a privacy invasion.

Whether any defamatory email or postcard or letter or overheard conversation could give rise to a successful defamation action or not, however, depends on all sorts of factors. Communications between company officers about an employee, for example, can be covered by a qualified privilege and to defeat this privilege, any defamatory statement needs to be shown to have been made with actual malice (made with an intent to harm by making knowingly false statements of fact).

I do not know much about workplace harassment and will leave it to the employment experts on this forum to fully address that question. To the best of my knowledge, though, a conversation about your age in and of itself would not be workplace harassment. It takes some sort of act against you because of your age (and, even then, it depends on your age).

 

[eerelations]

If you're 39 or under your boss can make fun of your age all he wants, and it's not illegal.

If you're 40 or over and your boss fires you, you might have a lawsuit for age discrimination (discrimination, not harassment), however in that lawsuit you will have to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that you were not fired because you snooped around in your boss' email account.

 

[cbg]

It's not even a shadow of workplace harassment, what's more, until the statements are said to YOU.

 

[commentator]

My question is What damage have you suffered? Other than hurt feelings, I mean? You didn't get a promotion/raise that you felt you deserved. You either read the email accidentally or you read the email by doing something to access it, on which your boss was saying something negative about you. But lies contained in that email were not what caused you not to get the promotion. You didn't get it because your manager made the decision not to give it to you.

You say you are looking for another job because you are not being treated "fairly." May I give you a strong suggestion? When you are looking for other jobs, do not mention the reason you are wanting to leave this one. There is no labor law anywhere on any books that say they must be "fair."
Go to another interview and start saying you weren't treated "fairly" by your old employer, and they'll run from you. Even more than a bad reference, a bad attitude or a sense of entitlement will turn them away from hiring you very quickly.

The workplace is not a fair place, there's no requirement that it be "even Steven" Some people are more equal than others, as someone said. And your manager has the right to make this call. Even if it's because you remind him of his Aunt Edna, he has the right to say he doesn't like you, doesn't like your work, thinks you have a bad attitude, and he's not going to give you a promotion. Nothing in this is illegal, or slanderous.

As it has already been stated, there might be some sort of issue with EEOC if they clearly stated, where you could see it without digging into or opening anything private, "We aren't promoting John Doe because he's too old, as we don't ever promote ANY of these old coots over fifty! It's our policy!" There would need to be shown that there was an on going pattern of discrminiation against older workers. It would take a long time. Would not amount to much, would probably never happen. Like it has been said, if they said, "John Doe is too young and immature to do the job!" and you're under forty, there's no even whiff of age discrimination. It is pretty much an employer's world out there. You have the right to go elsewhere and find a better job. They have the right to fire you at any time for pretty much any reason.