Can I sue my former employer?

Question

I recently quit my job. I did not tell my former employer where I was going. I e-mailed an ex co worker of mine letting her know my new job was great and I would call her later. I gave no details. Her boss ended up checking her e-mail and replied back to me letting me know that she found out what company I had gone to work for and to never e-mail her employees again. I replied back advising her to take it up with her employees and ask that they not communicate with me on their company e-mail. She has no business e-mailing or addressing me as I am no longer employed there. She then called my new boss and forwarded the e-mail to him. I feel she had no right to call my new employer and do that. My new boss questioned me and made me feel extremely uncomfortable that he was being involved. I want to sue because my relationship with my new employer has been damaged and I can't work there. I'm being treated different already! I can't focus and It's too early in the game for this.

Some of you are reading what you want and skipping over key details. I only e-mailed my old co-worker ONCE. I am obviously not going to e-mail her again on her company e-mail. She and I are friends outside of work. I've already talked to her about this on the phone. Fact is her boss had no right to call my new employer. For someone to say I'm an idiot or I'm immature, apparently you're speaking of yourself. I did nothing wrong. My old employer is just mad I am working for a competitor. What makes it worse is that my new employer didn't handle the situation right either. They were borderline trying to reprimand me, which is just silly.

Answer 1

Do you realize what an immature idiot you are?

Steven is wrong corporate email is not private.

Answer 2

Likely no, because it's not like she told your boss a lie but simple forwarded a written document started by you. There is no law against talking to someone and forwarded them factual documents. That e-mail you sent to the other company belongs to the that company wants it hits there servers and the company has the right to do whatever they want with it. You should have stayed clear when you had the chance.

Also, it might depend on what state you live in as well. And if it is Texas, a right to work state then forget! This is nothing compared to what happened to me and a lawyer laughed. I stress you drop it and focus on repairing the relationship with the new company by showing your dependability, quality of work and lack of further issues.

P.S. Not saying what happened isn't messed up or maybe even wrong but truthfully I don't there is anything you can do.

Note: I'm not a lawyer and my advise is strictly opinionated.

Answer 3

Well you can sue, but your case probably has no merit. The email sent to the employee automatically becomes property of your former company. If your old boss lied and did so with malicious intent, I think you may have grounds. But if they just said "he's emailing my employees and I told him to stop," my guess is you have no grounds. If I complain to a manager about a sales clerk's behavior, I'm not liable if I don't lie. For that matter, she has every right to email you--personal, non-bulk emails are not regulated (except if they're threatening, seditous, etc.). You can tell her to stop emailing you, especially if she's harrassing, but her emailing you once to ask you to stop contacting her employees is not illegal. She can't order you to do anything, but if she asks you to stop emailing, and you keep doing it, she may be able to claim _you_ are the harrasser.


Note: I am not a lawyer, and I don't play one on T.V. So you can't hold me accountable, this is all just my guess based upon my udnerstanding of basic law. This is not legal advice.

Edit: echo the previous person--corporate email is never private. An employer can read anything on an employee's computer, monitor their internet surfing, screen scrape...anything done on company equipment is company property.

Answer 4

yes, you should be protected under the privacy act or something like that. Not to mention, email is illegal and cant be accessed without your permission.