Team leader checking personal phone

pandaspot

DandelionPatrol wrote: »

The TL is allowed to look at messages on a personal phone if the owner of the phone lets them. In that sense, I think your main complaint for your messages is against your friend for giving in.

I think you have more than adequate grounds however to tell the TL that your messages to your friend are personal and that as far as you are concerned the TL has been as rude as if she bullied your friend into handing over a personal letter from you for inspection. You need to make it totally clear that this is a personal and not a work complaint. And you need to make it clear that it is the arrogance which concerns you, not the fact that she has seen the contents.

The TL was given the phone to look at a picture not then access her text messages and search through them and read them. I agree maybe she shouldn't have given the TL the phone in the first place. I suppose we all give a person an element of trust when you let them look at something on your phone. There is always the potential anyone can just start looking through a persons phone with instances like this.

Tbh I hope the TL tomorrow brings something up regarding it. I will like you say tell her that it's personal and should remain so, i am tempted to ask her if I can read her personal messages lol

Thanks for all your advice

DandelionPatrol

pandaspot wrote: »

The TL was given the phone to look at a picture not then access her text messages and search through them and read them. I agree maybe she shouldn't have given the TL the phone in the first place. I suppose we all give a person an element of trust when you let them look at something on your phone. There is always the potential anyone can just start looking through a persons phone with instances like this.

Tbh I hope the TL tomorrow brings something up regarding it. I will like you say tell her that it's personal and should remain so, i am tempted to ask her if I can read her personal messages lol

Thanks for all your advice

Your story is becoming rather, shall we say, fluid. As originally described, you were asking for the rules in an employment situation, which of itself is a fair question:

pandaspot wrote: »

... What are the rules regarding the team leader where I work reading a colleagues personal text messages on a private phone..not company provided. She then pulled her to one side to discuss the messages and made her promise not to tell anyone or tell the other person involved?

But now you tell us that you friend handed over her phone to show the TL a picture. So this really is not a work related issue and the TL should have been called on it on the spot as a social equal being offensive not as a TL.

Obviously she is taking liberties - she is using her TL position as leverage to behave badly outside of her TL role. The best way to handle this is generally not to interact with her socially - ie outside of her TL role. And to recognise when she is behaving badly outside the TL role and to deal with her as an equal who has stepped out of line. She will soon stop when she realises that she is blowing her workplace authority.

Of course, she may complain to her superiors, but the defence is that she was abusing her company position to be personally offensive.