So, my boss reads our e-mails. This has been known throughout our office ever since I started working here a year and a half ago. My boss has never come out and actually told us that she does this, but everyone knows she does. In my first week or so here, my co-worker warned me to never write anything in an e-mail we wouldn’t want the boss to see because she reads all the e-mails. Fine I said, no big deal, and I pretty much forgot about it. A few months later, my mom e-mailed me at work. She has her Outlook set up to send receipts every time a sent e-mail was read. Well she got one from me AND my boss and she called me up wondering what was up? So I explained it to her. Then me and some coworkers set up our Outlook to send us receipts whenever our e-mails were read. Sure enough, each time an e-mail was sent to anyone, my boss read it… We got a few chuckles out of this.
Now I never cared too much about this because my boss is hardly ever in the office and works from home a lot (she has 3 young children). I assume she just wants to stay “in the loop.” Fine, whatever. But we are fully aware she does this…we’re not stupid. Many times it’s evident when she’s not in the office, and we’re discussing an issue internally, and she calls up asking about it…and we’re like, well how else would she know what is going on unless she is monitoring our e-mails?
It’s not the fact she does this that bothers me, its that she blatantly lied about it. Here’s what happened. This morning I had a doctors appointment and I e-mailed my co-workers this morning to let them know I’d be in late. When I got in, she had e-mailed me saying I should have e-mailed her too. I wrote her back, innocently, saying sorry, but “I thought you automatically got copies of everyone’s e-mails so wouldn’t you have gotten a copy of my e-mail?” So she writes back saying:
This is a boldfaced lie. We all know she reads every e-mail that comes to us and from us. Heck, minutes after this exchange, my coworker sends me an e-mail concerning a project, and moments later, she gets a receipt that my boss read it. It was not from a client, it was from my co-worker. My other co-worker confirms that she gets read receipts from my boss all the time whenever she sends mail.
It really infuriates me that my boss would lie to us like this. Does she think we’re stupid? What does she have to hide? Should I say something to her about this or just let her continue to think we don’t know she does this? I hate being lied to so blantantly. It shows a severe lack of respect for us. We are all hard-working professionals in this office and I think we deserve better. Any thoughts?
Email the whole incident to a fellow co-worker, calling the boss all sorts of nasty names…then when big boss goes to fire you, say “Gotchya!”
On the serious side, that does suck. I don’t know any legallities of it but is there a company policy on it? If it’s written out somewhere that “emails will be monitored” you could work that into the conversation as to why you “thought” that she was reading them.
But even without Outlook’s return receipts, it’s just so obvious anyway. It’s laughable and insulting at the same time that she thinks we’re so stupid that we don’t know she is doing this, and it’s offensive the way she blatantly lied right to our faces by saying “I only read e-mail from clients.” She reads ALL e-mail, and we have the receipts to prove it!
I don’t care if she does it, just DON’T LIE about it!
Needless to say, me and my co-workers are pissed about it. But what can we do?
I’d forward Boss a few of the read receipts that prove she’s read the email, and comment with wide-eyed innocence, “Boss, this is why I assumed you were reading my email. Whenever I send out an email, I get a read receipt from the addressee and from you. Maybe something is set up incorrectly on our mail server?”
She might just have the “Preview” feature open on her outlook, which essentially opens an email, if if you don’t. It shows the first few lines of emails. As she goes through her in box the preview kicks out the receipt, even though she didn’t read it.
It’s possible she only “reads” mail from clients and discards personal e-mail once she determines it’s not work related. To her, this may equal not reading personal e-mail, even though she already did just to make sure it wasn’t work related.
Anyway, how the hell does this woman keep her job??? It sounds as if she has nothing to do except snoop on people’s e-mail. I mean, I barely have time to read my own e-mail, let alone everyone else’s!
Cripes, can I have her job? Working from home and doing nothing but reading other people’s e-mail.
Well, she is the president/founder of the company (it’s a very small company). We do all the work, and she sits at home reading our e-mails. She literally comes into the office a maximum of 4 hours a week, tops. I know, I know, it’s a pretty disconcerting situation.
I like the job and the work, I just don’t like my boss’ management style. She’s an absentee boss, but a snooper and a micromanager from behind the scenes, then lies about it.
This is a great idea! However, as much as I would love to do this, I keep thinking I’d better not. One thing I have learned here is that I need to pick my battles. This would only cause trouble because my boss is a very…unstable and emotional type of person and she would take great offense to be caught in a lie. It would be way much more trouble than it is worth.
My boss has a term for that type of management; Seagull Management
Every once in a while, they come in squawking, shit all over you, and fly off again. :rolleyes:
That Outlook Preview seems like a good way to catch a virus. My boss did anyways. I believe he had some setting that automatically opens attachments too, though.
