Treatment of Confidential E-Mail Information

J Miller

How would you handle information, submitted to you confidentially via e-mail, which pertained to problems w/client/company relationship, as well as relationship between senior management and manager? As HR representative, do you notify e-mail sender that you are going to take action or is this not necessary given the fact that the e-mail was sent to you unsolicited?

Don D

I guess my answer is, it depends on who the sender is/was. I would not feel any obligation to respond unless it was a peer manager, my supervisor, an officer of the company or some senior member of management whom I assumed would want a confirmation reply. And depending on who it was in that list of people, I might or might not tell them what I intend to do, or as you say, tell them 'that you are going to take action'. Your reply can range from, "Thanks" all the way up to "Yes sir! I assure you I'll be on this right away and will keep you posted as my investigation rolls out." Assess where the sender is in the pecking order and act accordingly.

marc

Our handbook clearly points out that email is not confidential and should, at best, be compared to a post card. There should be no expectation of confidentiality or privacy with respect to email.

That said, I agree with Don's response.