QUESTION
Can I sue employer for failing to adhere to a request for privacy with an email I sent to corporate?
Asked on Jul 29th, 2014 on Employment Contracts - Texas
More details to this question:
My wife works for a national corporate restaurant chain. When an issue arose at her workplace with management she decided the best thing to do would be to email corporate for a resolution. In the meal she clearly stated that she did not want her managers to see the email so as to avoid any unnecessary conflict it could cause. The email was immediately sent to her managers as if corporate completely ignored her request, making things awkward for her at work. She has not been terminated, but is basically being given the "silent treatment" by her manager now. My question is does she have a case against her employer for failing to adhere to her request for privacy/anonymity? The employer uses a third party email service if that makes any difference, she also got a call from a corporate manager apologizing for the incident. Thanks for your help!
1 ANSWER
Do you have any basis for believing that corporate was required to adhere to your wife's request? If there is an employee handbook or contract or some preexisting policy which represented that corporate would keep employee communications confidential, or if corporate had agreed beforehand that anything your wife communicated would be kept confidential, you might have a case, but absent that I don't think you do. If I say I will give you a car, but only if you agree to only use premium gas, and I agree, you may be able to enforce that. But if I give you the car, and only then tell you that you can only use premium gas, it's too late; the car is yours and you can do what you want with it within the bounds of the law. Once your wife conveyed the information without first getting a promise that corporate would keep it confidential, corporate could do what it wanted with the information within the bounds of the law.
Answered on Jul 30th, 2014 at 9:32 AM