Moral question

garfield33

Here's a quandary for a Friday lunchtime:

A colleague of mine has been on sick leave for a couple of months, and I have access to her emails so I can pick up any work that needs doing.

However she has recieved a few emails from a credit card company saying she owes money, and it's increasing each month. It's not huge amounts (the latest is about £150, it started at about £80). The emails look genuine, and I know she does use her work email for some personal things.

I have no way of knowing whether she is recieving paper statements for this at home, or to her home email, without asking her.

So do I...

... not say anything because I'm only supposed to be checking for work related things? But risk these charges building up and up.

... text her to say that these emails are coming in? But then she'd know I'd seen the emails.

... tell her line manager and let him decide (he's not always the best at making decisions though).

Happy New Year!

lisyloo

In every email browser I've used you cannot stop seeing the email titles. In this case I would be tempted to say to the colleague

"Whilst looking through your work email, I can't help noticing you have a number of emails from XXX bank and just wondered whether it's something you ought to check as it appears they are trying to contact you".

I would deny seeing/reading the email content.

Degenerate

You are authorised to access her email, therefore you have nothing whatsoever to apologise for. She made the decision to mix up her personal and work affairs by using her work email for non-work related purposes. There should be no reasonable expectation of privacy for work email - it is normal for it to be delegated to others in various situations, as it has to you.

I would probably call or text her saying some personal emails have come through, not being specific about the contents, and ask her if she has a private email address for you to forward them to.

ab7167

Yes, we are specifically told at work that although we may use it for personal use, that the company have the right to monitor it at all times. I have access to all leavers emails accounts in our team so I can deal with issues and reallocate work, some of the stuff that has come through is unbelievable! However, all people in question have left the company now so I generally just delete. And am now very careful about what I use my work email account for... We aren't allowed web based email access on work servers, so <shock horror> I have to check my personal email at home in my own time. I do have an iPhone now which helps, but I think my works policy is reasonable.

Do you have a personal email address for her? Could you forward them on maybe?

Mr.Mulla

lisyloo wrote: »

In every email browser I've used you cannot stop seeing the email titles. In this case I would be tempted to say to the colleague

"Whilst looking through your work email, I can't help noticing you have a number of emails from XXX bank and just wondered whether it's something you ought to check as it appears they are trying to contact you".

I would deny seeing/reading the email content.

I agree with Lisyloo. This is indeed the moral thing to do, otherwise your officemate's loan interest will pile up.

garfield33

Thank you everyone, I decided to drop her text saying "thought you'd like to know..." and she said it was ok to just delete them.