Manager receiving all of my work emails

tiny-tyno

Hi wondering if someone could help,

2yrs ago I went on maternity leave, the Manger who took over my role took my laptop, on my mails, I set up that she would get any mails while I was gone from our clients/customers.

Last year I came back from maternity leave, got a new laptop, got my mails back up and working with, I have found out today by accident by seeing it with my own eyes, she is getting all of my mails still, I have gotten my mails checked and nothing is showing up that indicates she is getting them, however she is and I'm back 13 months.

How do I go about approaching this and who should I go too? This girl has gotten a promotion since I've come back which now makes her my manager!!

Stheno

Perhaps bring it up with her first?

PUnited

it depends on how you copped she is still receiving them. Did you spot it in a way that could be classed as snooping? if not just ask to have a word and ask is she still getting them and say sorry to have been burdening her inbox with your work related info.

Would it be a case of they are still being forwarded to her or did she just have your email and password to set it up on her own pc? Maybe try and change your password?

RikuoAmero

What exactly is the problem? As you said this is a work laptop as in bought by them and she is your boss...why shouldn't she be able to see them?

PUnited

RikuoAmero wrote: »

What exactly is the problem? As you said this is a work laptop as in bought by them and she is your boss...why shouldn't she be able to see them?

Maybe its just me but anywhere i worked no one had access to an employees work emails except in cases like someone being off, that and IT.

tiny-tyno

I was at her desk with her today and noticed a mail that was only sent to me just prior to me going to up to her.

My issue here is why would someone not make it knowledgeable that by she is getting all of these mails 13 months on since I'm back. It's as though I'm been watched.

All managers have private conversations via email and now she has read them all God only knows what was sent in d last 13 months

tiny-tyno

PUnited wrote: »

it depends on how you copped she is still receiving them. Did you spot it in a way that could be classed as snooping? if not just ask to have a word and ask is she still getting them and say sorry to have been burdening her inbox with your work related info.

Would it be a case of they are still being forwarded to her or did she just have your email and password to set it up on her own pc? Maybe try and change your password?

I've gotten I. T to look at my laptop and my mails once she was gone, and they have seen nothing on my My mails to suggest any forwarding on my side, they said they would need to look at her mail settings, my pw has to be changed every month for security.

Stheno

tiny-tyno wrote: »

I've gotten I. T to look at my laptop and my mails once she was gone, and they have seen nothing on my My mails to suggest any forwarding on my side, they said they would need to look at her mail settings, my pw has to be changed every month for security.

It could be configured on the mailserver if it's not on your laptop

realdanbreen

tiny-tyno wrote: »

Hi wondering if someone could help,

2yrs ago I went on maternity leave, the Manger who took over my role took my laptop, on my mails, I set up that she would get any mails while I was gone from our clients/customers.

Last year I came back from maternity leave, got a new laptop, got my mails back up and working with, I have found out today by accident by seeing it with my own eyes, she is getting all of my mails still, I have gotten my mails checked and nothing is showing up that indicates she is getting them, however she is and I'm back 13 months.

How do I go about approaching this and who should I go too? This girl has gotten a promotion since I've come back which now makes her my manager!!

If you have a problem with it then just say it to her!

Kop On

I assume she is getting every email you receive (personal too) and able to view every email you send? This is not a healthy situation.

Ask her for a meeting and just be truthful, tell her you noticed the email coming in to her inbox the other day and just ask is there a reason why she still has access to all your emails?

tiny-tyno

Kop On wrote: »

I assume she is getting every email you receive (personal too) and able to view every email you send? This is not a healthy situation.

Ask her for a meeting and just be truthful, tell her you noticed the email coming in to her inbox the other day and just ask is there a reason why she still has access to all your emails?

She is getting everything. I feel like she has been watching me and not in a good way. I think IL go to our HR rep tomorrow

bilbot79

She might have been bcc'd in that one mail?

tiny-tyno

bilbot79 wrote: »

She might have been bcc'd in that one mail?

I was beside the chap that sent it, he only put in my add,

Mrs OBumble

Email is the electronic equivalent of a postcard.

There should not be anything in a work email that you are not comfortable with your manager seeing.

In most companies, all emails are scanned automatically and ones that raise questions may be manually reviewed.

Kop On

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Email is the electronic equivalent of a postcard.

There should not be anything in a work email that you are not comfortable with your manager seeing.

In most companies, all emails are scanned automatically and ones that raise questions may be manually reviewed.

Ah come off it. That's like something written in the IT security policy, but in reality there is no way a manager should have a mirror inbox etc for one of their employees. Unless they suspect them of something.

Show me somebody who doesn't send personal emails from a work address and I'll show you a liar.

As an adult I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a certain level of privacy in the workplace. The situation described is like something you'd do to your teenage child to monitor their Facebook interactions etc.

dixiefly

I agree, totally out of order to have all of a colleagues incoming and outgoing mail forwarded like this.

To the OP, get as many facts about the situation before confronting anyone.

my3cents

Do we know the manager isn't just getting these emails because they are too stupid or lazy to ask someone in IT to change it so they don't get them anymore?

Cee-Jay-Cee

Is it a work email address? Can you set up a new one for yourself and forward the new address to all your clients?

beauf

I assume that you are also a manager. I would request from IT to check that you email is not still being forwarded to any other account, or that no one else has access to your inbox. You can have a shared inbox. It could be it was never turned off. You might need to go through HR for that, depends on your IT dept.

I would also check your companies IT policy in relation to email, and email privacy. I would have no expectation of privacy of work email. But I would expect to be informed of any policy regarding it. TBH I think its a mistake to treat even personal email as secure. They say you should put nothing in email you wouldn't want to see on the 9 O'Clock news. A lot of places , people avoid using email for this very reason.

I would be careful about claiming someone else has access, as you can't prove it. So I wouldn't let on you know someone else has access. But you can tell people not to sent you personal/confidential emails for the time being. Getting an alternate email set up might a good way to proceed.

skallywag

Tell your IT dept that your email was being forwarded to another colleague while you were out, and you would like to know if this forwarding is still active or not, now that you are back.

jayobray

I would actually be concerned from an audit/security point of view that someone else could send an email purporting to be from you that may be inappropriate or cause offence.

skallywag

jayobray wrote: »

I would actually be concerned from an audit/security point of view that someone else could send an email purporting to be from you that may be inappropriate or cause offence.

From what I can gather emails being addressed to the OP are being forwarded to another person, I don't think there is any question of this other person having the capability to send emails on behalf of the OP.

Francie Barrett

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Email is the electronic equivalent of a postcard.

There should not be anything in a work email that you are not comfortable with your manager seeing.

In most companies, all emails are scanned automatically and ones that raise questions may be manually reviewed.

What a useless reply.

Having your e-mail being redirected to a co-worker without cause or without being informed is totally unacceptable - http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/monitoring_and_surveillance_at_work/surveillance_of_electronic_communications_in_the_workplace.html

beauf

Francie Barrett wrote: »

What a useless reply.

Having your e-mail being redirected to a co-worker without cause or without being informed is totally unacceptable - http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/monitoring_and_surveillance_at_work/surveillance_of_electronic_communications_in_the_workplace.html

From the first post...

tiny-tyno wrote: »

... I set up that she would get any mails while I was gone from our clients/customers....

Mrs OBumble

Kop On wrote: »

Show me somebody who doesn't send personal emails from a work address and I'll show you a liar.

As an adult I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a certain level of privacy in the workplace. The situation described is like something you'd do to your teenage child to monitor their Facebook interactions etc.

Well in the twenty-teens, you'd be wrong.

Back in the 1990s/2000's when I was in a permanent job, I'd have agreed with you.

But now as an agency worker with a smartphone, I would never, ever send a personal email from my work account. Among other things, because it's totally unnecessary.


And as a former manager, I can tell you that, like it or not, the average worker is subject to a lot more supervision than the average teenager.

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

A little off topic but personal emails from a work address? Are you guys for real? Disciplinary offence here and rightly so. There's no need for it unless you have it approved.

OP, I would check with your IT if there's a forwarder on your email. At least confirm it. If you don't want to be straight up with your boss, you could always make up an excuse that you found out 'accidently'.
Something along the lines of "<Hey boss person> I'm planning to take leave later this year and wanted to check if I forward my mail from my outlook or do the IT guys have to do it. IT mentioned you were still getting my mail from when I was on maternity, so I just asked them to remove your email address. Sorry about that...you were probably getting all my 'junk'...*smile*"

sebcity

I would guess 99% of people shoot their mates emails from their work mail as it is convenient, it's always open in front of you.

Mr. Guappa

Send an email to her husband/partner saying you really enjoyed hooking up last weekend and that you can't wait for next time.

txt_mess

Hate to say it but I've worked in IT for over 20 years most companies have it in their contracts which everyone signs that company email and assets must only be used for company purposes and is subject to audit and review.

This statement covers the employee being informed for any posting about their rights.

Technically speaking they can use it as a reason for dismissal if they find something in your mail they don't like (like a link to a funny video sent to a mate). before everyone jumps up and down I know this is not the norm but it does not mean they can't do it if they want to.

Best advice is use your smartphone and all you can eat data plan to keep yourself out of trouble , if your company doesn't allow phones then sorry but you are in work and your mates will have to wait.

txt_mess

Also as the folks have said above talk to your IT guys ask them to check if forwarding is in place and they won't care and will let you know.

If they tell you it forwarding is not happening and clearly you have seen that it is still in place then your manager has asked for it to stay in place without you being aware and there is nothing much you can do apart from being ultra careful of what you write and keep it all business.

Worth mentioning most places have calls and desktop recorded so your manager can be looking at what you are doing everytime you're on the computer in realtime.

cruizer101

Maybe I'm bit strange but I really don't see the issue, this person is your manager so I don't see the issue with them having access to your work emails.

I see my work email address for dealing with work issues and wouldn't use for personal emails at all I don't know why you would. From my own perspective I prefer to keep things separated, even in college I tried to keep college email for college things only.

then from a work perspective, send out personal emails from it and people assume you can get personal emails to it, this could end up with you receiving email with material that is against against company policy, maybe not likely but a possibility, especially if that email gets added to a group list of friends emailing stuff.

Riskymove

cruizer101 wrote: »

Maybe I'm bit strange but I really don't see the issue, this person is your manager so I don't see the issue with them having access to your work emails.

for me what would matter is if this is a general policy for everyone that everyone should know about

or an individual case where one manager has arranged this without anyone's knowledge

I think they would be two very different things in this context.

Stheno

I have two friends working for non Irish Financial services firms here, and it's mandatory that all mails they send and recieve are copied to their managers, it's not unheard of.

Irish_Elect_Eng

One additional note of caution.

It is now also not uncommon to have clause in the IT policy on company hardware that the company reserves the right to review all electronic communications sent using company hardware. That includes personal mail sent on company hardware (PC / Phone / Tablet, Network, Etc).

skallywag

Mr. Guappa wrote: »

Send an email to her husband/partner saying you really enjoyed hooking up last weekend and that you can't wait for next time.

I think some people have completely misunderstood the issue here, i.e. emails being sent from the OP are not being forwarded to this person, the issue is surely only with incoming email addressed to the OP?

It's very common in a business environment to have incoming email forwarded to someone else, and for completely valid and legitimate reasons, as the OP pointed out in the opening post. The key issue at play here is that this forwarding was never deactivated on her return.

A situation where emails written by the OP are automatically sent to an unknown recipient is a completely different matter though, and certainly not common business practice.

skallywag

Stheno wrote: »

I have two friends working for non Irish Financial services firms here, and it's mandatory that all mails they send and recieve are copied to their managers, it's not unheard of.

I am assuming though that it's clear that the manager is being copied though, i.e. it's visible in the CC field?

L.Jenkins

RikuoAmero wrote: »

What exactly is the problem? As you said this is a work laptop as in bought by them and she is your boss...why shouldn't she be able to see them?

Unless staff were using Lotus Notes, then it would be hard for anyone to see employee emails, besides Net/IT Admins responsible for managing mail servers. The issue with Lotus Notes is, anyone can see your mails, if it is set up to share employee inboxes. It doesn't seem to be the case with Outlook. In outlook, you have to delegate access to your inbox for someone to receive your mails and allow them to respond to them.

RainyDay

Itzy wrote: »

Unless staff were using Lotus Notes, then it would be hard for anyone to see employee emails, besides Net/IT Admins responsible for managing mail servers. The issue with Lotus Notes is, anyone can see your mails, if it is set up to share employee inboxes.

Lotus Notes relies on delegation being set up also. If you delegate access to someone else, they can see your mailbox. If not, they can't. And you can check delegation settings yourself.

Ash.J.Williams

1. It's either a rule on your pc (which it isn't)
2. forwarding on the server
3. she is a delegate who has the rights to view your mailbox

IT can fix that for you. In fact an email on your return to remove the process you helped set up would have been the way to go.

goldenhoarde

OP First thing is (if its outlook 2010 these are the steps and I know you may already have done some/all of this but no harm in checking again )

Go to - Rules - Manage Alerts and Rules

Check any rules here and see if there is one that's is sending the mails on from you to the manager in question.

if not go to File -> Info -> Account settings then select Delegate access and see if anything pops up here.

If there is nothing then you will need to get onto IT to see if there is something on the mail server for your account doing this.

The mail in question you saw on her account was it a work related one that somebody may have put here on the BCC list meaning you wouldn't know it had also been sent to her or was it a private one or one that you can be sure was for you only?

Do these checks (again if necessary) and see if you can discover the cause. Or check back in your emails (if you have them) and see what exactly you did to set this up? You may have a mail from IT/the manager in Question detailing what you need to do?

westernlass

Kop On wrote: »

Ah come off it. That's like something written in the IT security policy, but in reality there is no way a manager should have a mirror inbox etc for one of their employees. Unless they suspect them of something.

Show me somebody who doesn't send personal emails from a work address and I'll show you a liar.

As an adult I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a certain level of privacy in the workplace. The situation described is like something you'd do to your teenage child to monitor their Facebook interactions etc.

I don't send personal emails through my work address ever!!! I have my phone and a personal email address for that

Stheno

westernlass wrote: »

I don't send personal emails through my work address ever!!! I have my phone and a personal email address for that

Me either, haven't done for a good ten years!

And apart from the odd check of the Irish times website, I don't surf the web on work controlled machines either

Kop On

westernlass wrote: »

I don't send personal emails through my work address ever!!! I have my phone and a personal email address for that

Fiar play to you, that's a first for me. I hope you're not using your phone or personal email address during working hours though.

Stheno wrote: »

Me either, haven't done for a good ten years!

And apart from the odd check of the Irish times website, I don't surf the web on work controlled machines either

Did somerthing happen 10 years ago to make you change your habits.

I hear this morning that the Irish Times is going subscription only so you'll be even more diligent in work now.

Tar.Aldarion

Start to subtly praise the person all the time. No need to let them know, use it

westernlass

Kop On wrote: »

Fiar play to you, that's a first for me. I hope you're not using your phone or personal email address during working hours though.

My working hours are undefined so I do check it regularly in that I check my email. Usually while on the phone so am multi tasking. I work 8.30 am - 10 pm most days so I didn't check them then I'd get nothing done

skallywag

I have no issue if any of my team wish to send private mails etc during working hours etc, as long as it's done from their gmail/hotmail etc. Their work email accounts should be kept for that sole purpose though, i.e. work related email only.

Wabbit Ears

goldenhoarde wrote: »

OP First thing is (if its outlook 2010 these are the steps and I know you may already have done some/all of this but no harm in checking again )

Go to - Rules - Manage Alerts and Rules

Check any rules here and see if there is one that's is sending the mails on from you to the manager in question.

if not go to File -> Info -> Account settings then select Delegate access and see if anything pops up here.

If there is nothing then you will need to get onto IT to see if there is something on the mail server for your account doing this.

The mail in question you saw on her account was it a work related one that somebody may have put here on the BCC list meaning you wouldn't know it had also been sent to her or was it a private one or one that you can be sure was for you only?

Do these checks (again if necessary) and see if you can discover the cause. Or check back in your emails (if you have them) and see what exactly you did to set this up? You may have a mail from IT/the manager in Question detailing what you need to do?

This is what I was going to write. Its probably you sharing your mailbox.