Help, About To Get Sacked For Reading Managers Emails

peter999

jennifer1978 wrote: »

My managers have came to me and said that someone has been reading my line managers emails on the pc that I use, which I haven't.

In order to log onto the pc's at work you need a unique password and anyone could log onto any pc.

They have said that someone logs on as my line manager, reads his emails and then logs off and the next person to be logged on is me. When I come into work in the morning you can see that last person to be logged on and it always has been me as it is normally only me that uses that particular pc.

It is obvious that someone is logging on as my manager and then also knows my password and logs on as me, clearing themselves from any wrong doing.

Exactly what proof is there that your Manager's emails are being read on your Pc ??

Have they put the accusations & evidence in writing ??

Who has discovered this & what is their expertise & technical qualifications ??

peter999

jennifer1978

dont think so. Someone has physically logged in as him and then as me. within seconds he is logged off and I am logged on. I could be sacked on the spot for this without warnings. Can they sack me without physical proof (i.e. someone seeing me?) I am really worried about going in tomorrow - should i resign before being sacked?

jennifer1978

not been told what proof they have yet. I.T. department discovered it

Fran

I don't see how they can accuse you of this if everyone is supposed to have a unique password - surely if you don't know other people's passwords it cant happen? It sounds more like a computer glitch as suggested by Floozie. Or one of the managers checking on others' emails?

jennifer1978

I don't know anyone's passwords but someone else in my work could. think is anyone couldve done this but it is on the pc I normally use.

speedyjoe

jennifer1978 wrote: »

I don't know anyone's passwords but someone else in my work could. think is anyone couldve done this but it is on the pc I normally use.

Well how are you supposed to have obtained the manager's password? If their system is so flaky that you have alledgedly managed to obtain the password then it's as much their fault as anyone else's.

If someone has hacked the system in whatever way then they would if they were sensible take measures to ensure their identity was obscured - most likely by making it look like it was someone else. IANAL but I would think in law reasonable proof that it was you would require something more than just a logon record, a witness or CCTV record that you were there at the time the logons occured for example.

You say that the logons must have occured before you come into work, well if you have a timeclock then the record from that should show that you weren't there at those times and so it can't be you. As someone else suggested if I were you I would speak to your union.

CFC

Firstly, don't panic. Nobody is going to sack you on the spot. There needs to be a kind of formal investigation first and then a hearing of some kind. Sacking on the spot is restricted to very serious offences and as it does put the company at some risk is unlikely in a large business.

Secondly, please read through the thread that you have been directed to.

Thirdly, the fact that you are (supposedly) the next person to log in on that pc is irrelevant ie or that your name appears in the log on box. If you are on a normal Windows type environment, unless your pc is locked overnight, then anyone who wished to could overtype your username into the space where someone else's name has been. If it is left that way for long it will revert to the name of the last person who logged on, though, when the computer reawakens. Hope that makes sense. Feeling a bit tired and many things take 2 seconds to show and 200000 words to explain.

That would not strike me as a reasonable grounds for the company to believe that you have done this, on the face of it, unless they have other evidence. Unless the office consists of you and your manager and one or two other people who are not present in work during the morning, it seems very unlikely to me that that one simple indicator should be relied on to say who has done this, unless the IT logs show that the manager logged off at 9.01 and you yourself logged on at 9.03, in which case it is unlikely that anyone else would have time to do this. The problem is that you say this is the kind of timeframe we are looking at here. Unless someone else has your password. Similarly, if the manager's own unique password is being used then questions need to be asked of that person ie who have you given or allowed to know your password?

Fourthly, if you have given anyone else in the office your password (perhaps with the most helpful of intentions eg 'I'm off sick/on lunch/holiday tomorrrow, Tony could you just pick X up from my mailbox and action it?') then you will need to make this clear. You may well be at risk of disciplinary action for having done it, though. Same with the manager....

Fifthly, what evidence of wrongdoing is required? Not the same evidence as a court of law - the company must 'be acting reasonably'. For example, if you have given your password to someone and they did naughty stuff on your log in, then it would be quite reasonable to discipline you both. Also, if it quacks like a duck and leaves footprints like a duck, you don't have to see it to to reasonably believe it's a duck.

Sixthly, you should ask IT under what circumstances could their logging software have confused or accidentally cross linked your manager's log on trail and your own. Impossible to guess without knowing how they are tracking it.

scheming_gypsy

How have they traced it back to your computer?
If you use an up to date version of Windows, IE XP, it'll have details in the event viewer of activity on the computer, look back to the date and time it happened and it should show who logged on and what time.

If they're doing a trace by IP address it won't be conclusive evidence unless they're looking deep into it. Somebody could have logged on their computer as your manager picking up an IP address by DHCP, read emails and then run the (start > command) ipconfig /release command which would release that IP address back into the pool. When you log in this may be the next available IP address and you pick it up. Therefore looking like you have the same IP address that was used to view the emails.

Poppy9

If they have asked IT to trace who is logging on as manager then this has obviously been going on for a while. Presumably the manager has changed his password during this time to make his email more secure. If he hasn't written down the password or told anyone, then how could you know it

Also why would anyone want to read his emails? What is in them that's so important? It could be a glitch in the system, though IT like to deny this happens, or you are being set up. Ask them for times of manager log on and check this to your start/finish times.

scheming_gypsy

manager changing password doesn't help too much. Most people with a password that needs changing at a regular interval usually just add a number to the end and can be guessed pretty easy.