# Personal diary found and read by co-worker

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-diary-found-and-read-by-co-worker/791464>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [July 17, 2017, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-diary-found-and-read-by-co-worker/791464 "2017-07-17T04:57:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-diary-found-and-read-by-co-worker/791464/41 "2017-07-20T04:49:00Z")

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At first I was going to say, “They might have opened it to try to figure out who it belonged to so they could return it, but they should have stopped reading the moment they realized what it was.”

But then I got to this part:

> [@Vanilla\_Ice](#):
>
> The diary was labeled: ‘personal health journal- my name’.

Completely inexcusable. You have every right to be furious.

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**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-diary-found-and-read-by-co-worker/791464/42 "2017-07-20T08:11:59Z")

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> [@Melbourne](#):
>
> Agree that if your diary is private, you should keep it at home. Astonishing lack of professionalism on both sides.

The OP stated that they mistakenly left the journal as work, which doesn’t strike me as unprofessional. Given the content which may be there, it would be something which one should be very careful about, of course.

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**Author:** ![Eggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f04885/32.png) [@Eggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eggy)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-diary-found-and-read-by-co-worker/791464/43 "2023-09-08T09:05:06Z")

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Omg! My coworkers go into my backpack and read my diary and I wrote about being assault I am extremely pissed and embarrassed and I have no way to prove it except by the things they say.

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**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-diary-found-and-read-by-co-worker/791464/44 "2023-09-08T11:09:19Z")

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> [@Grrr](#):
>
> You know, years ago at my work, someone found a glitch in the system that would allow you to look at anyone’s salary if you knew the trick. Word got around and lots of dumb asses took advantage. As soon as upper management found out about it, everyone who did it got fired. (and it was a LOT of people too.)

Of course they go fired - workers knowing each others’ salaries hurts management and helps the workers. The last thing management wants is workers asking why someone else makes more than that do, and why management makes SO MUCH more than they do.

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**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-diary-found-and-read-by-co-worker/791464/45 "2023-09-08T16:23:28Z")

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And under most union contracts, knowing every non-management employee’s pay is common knowledge. All you need to know is their job classification and hire date and you can probably figure it out quite easily.

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