My receptionist opened a letter addressed to me and read it to a staff member. Is this legal?

Question

The letter was a complaint about this staff member, and of a confidential nature. My query is whether in a business situation this is covered by law or employment contract. Opening mail is part of her job, but reading mail out to non-addressed people is not.

Answer 1

Does she normally open mail as part of her job? If so, it wouldn't be right to fire her for merely opening the mail like she does every day. It is, indeed, illegal to open mail addressed to someone else. But if it was addressed to the company name, or this is something she does every day, I wouldn't think it would be right to use that as an excuse to reprimand her.

However, she did use terrible judgement by sharing a confidential communication. Why would she share something so hurtful with someone else? Seems like a pretty mean thing to do. I would definitely sit down and talk to her about it, and would probably write her up for it. The truth is, if you really want her fired you will find some 'legal' way to do it. Any employee who used such poor judgement in this specific situation is bound to have used poor judgment elsewhere.

Answer 2

I worked as a receptionist for several years and I can tell you this much. Yes her responsibility is to open mail, but not to take that mail and read it to another person in the office. She should really not even be reading the mail. We were only allowed to open the envelope. We could not take the letter out of the envelope. This needs to be addressed. You take this to the boss. If you have a union take it to the union steward, and file a grievance. She had no right to do that. I would act on this fast before she does it again. That letter was of a personal nature and should have remained that way. Good Luck.

Answer 3

OK , gets tricky if opening the mail is part of her job description .
If you knew the letter was coming , you should have told them to send it requiring your signature and advised her NOT to open it but call you when it arrived .

Did you do that ?

Reading it to the staff would be a serious breach of responsibility and totally unprofessional .

I would write her up & depending on the nature of the original complaint , possibly suspend her pending further review .

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Answer 4

This is invasion of privacy, and unethical conduct. She was not hired to open mail addressed to you, and to inform a member of the staff about its confidential content: this was unethical from her, and it may the basis for firing her. Why did she read this letter to other staff ? was she looking to stir trouble at your company ? mmmmm, you may sue her if the consequences of her actions hurt your business, but I bet she has no money to pay for any damages.
Show her the door, get rid of her.
Good luck !

Answer 5

Depends, if it is a letter addressed to you as a rep for your company them opening it is not, if it is personal then yes, and either I believe reading to the employee is.

It says in the whistleblower act that if you have a complaint then you are aloud to express it without any consquences, but if someone else, tells then they should be in trouble.

I do not know if I am wording this correctly, but either way they are NOT permitted to read your mail to someone else!!!!

Answer 6

Most companies (large companies anyway) have policies against personal mail coming to your place of employment and other companies hire people to open any mail that comes in to the company. If it's something of a personal nature then send it to your home address, if it's company related then it's company business in most cases unless it's stamped confidential. No different really than them scanning your computer at work for non company related material.

Answer 7

you should talk to her, and ask her why she was reading your mail to other people. maybe some sort of punishment is in order. Tell her that it will be enforced the next time if should happen again. Have you taken it up with the higher-ups. Find out or make a comp. policy so don't happen again.

Answer 8

If you dont get rid of her now , she`ll carry on as an insubordinate ,
you have opened the door for do what she wants ,
There are common boundaries in biz she jumped a boundary big time there ,
next she`ll be in the cash jar or telling customers where to go .
I had an employee like this once ,it got to the stage where he didnt jump boundaries ghe kicked them out of his way .
Finally , after letting his bullsh#t go on for too long .I walked in as he was giving a long time customer a mouthfull on the phone ,
He wouldnt say who it was and i told him ,dont tou7ch the fone again , as i said it the fone rang and he answered it .
i lost it and hit him sooo hard open hand on the ear it knocked him over , as he was getting up I kicked him and busted his nose aswell .
the point is ,I let the first trick go by and he took advantage of it .
So buddy
dump the ***** .

Answer 9

It's not illegal if her job is to open mail.

But she did cross an ethical line by reading it to the staff member. She didn't know better - and should be reprimanded or have disciplinary action taken.

Answer 10

Well. i don't think she meant to do it to slander you. unless she could obviously see it was of personal nature. i would definitely counsel her for it. did she read it to another receptionist who opens mail as well? of so, then there's not much you can do. but if she read it to a person who has no business hearing the company mail/your personal mail, then i would warn her. tell her that her job is to open and screen the mail, not broadcast it.