WR: Would you be ticked about this? UPDATED

[sometimesrunner]

I received an email today from a client that I wasn't expecting. I had no clue what she was talking about so I scrolled down and her email was in response to an email that was sent to her over the weekend. Apparently the person I'm training sent an email from my email address (I have no clue how she did that) and even signed my name at the bottom. If I look in my "sent" messages this particular email isn't there. Now this email would be perfectly acceptable communication with the client...but WTF did she pretend like I sent it? I don't want emails being sent with my signature on them unless I actually sent them. How would you handle this? Would you brush it off as a one time thing or would you approach her about this? Sorry I have to be out of the office for awhile so this is going to be a post and run.

UPDATE:

I went into my coworkers office and breezily said "Sheila Thomas (not her real name) emailed you back. Here you go!" She looks at me blankly and says "Who is Sheila Thomas?" I replied that it's the contact person for the client she just worked on and she goes "Oh I didn't know that!" It turns out said client copy and pasted the text of email I sent back to her in July over the email I sent on Sunday. Who does that?!?! Anyway, thank you everyone for validating my feelings. I am really glad I didn't go into my coworkers office all ticked off. I at least avoided some embarrassment.

[ECB]

I'd absolutely approach her!! I'd also look at the rights on your PC. You have to (as far as I know) give "permission" to someone to send email on your behalf (and it will look like it came from your email). Admin assistants will do this for their bosses. I have to wonder if she did that on your PC when you weren't around??

But seriously- if she did this once, I'd expect she'll do it again.

[krystee]

Signing your name means it is definitely not accidental.

Does this person's job involve sending emails under your name? If not, this would be a write-up, in my opinion. That is a breach of trust and a big deal.

[mbcdefg]

I wouldn't be ticked ... I'd be FURIOUS.

I would absolutely talk to someone about this. HR, boss, and/or the offender directly.

[rosiedozie]

Yea, that needs to be addressed. Not ok at all.

[sometimesrunner]

Jan 14, 2014 12:20:37 GMT -5 ECB said:

I'd absolutely approach her!! I'd also look at the rights on your PC. You have to (as far as I know) give "permission" to someone to send email on your behalf (and it will look like it came from your email). Admin assistants will do this for their bosses. I have to wonder if she did that on your PC when you weren't around??

But seriously- if she did this once, I'd expect she'll do it again.

Good thought on the permissions. I'm trying to figure that out now.

[MixedBerryJam]

Jan 14, 2014 12:21:05 GMT -5 @songforyou said:

I would absolutely approach. The fact that she deleted it from your sent mail is even crazier.

Outlook? Sent mail resides locally, I think, so if the trainee sent it "on OP's behalf" from her own machine, it would be in trainee's Sent folder.

And OP, definitely say something. Even if there was no ill intent, the potential for it to backfire someday is high.

[HoneySpider]

I would definitely address it, she has no right to do that.

[Deleted]

Waaaaay not cool.

[ECB]

And if your permissions are set u pfor her to do this, I'd actually suggest changing your passwords to your PC AND always log-off when you're not at your desk. I don't want to be overly paranoid, but it's really strange that she was able to do that w/o your knowledge.

[dexteroni]

Jan 14, 2014 12:22:52 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

I wouldn't be ticked ... I'd be FURIOUS.

I would absolutely talk to someone about this. HR, boss, and/or the offender directly.

This. This is not an "oh, you" offense. She would have been fired for this at my last company. And if your boss and HR don't treat it as seriously as you think they should, I would have a separate talk with her about how FUCKING PISSED you are and how it has undermined your professional opinion of her, and how never, ever, EVER, is she to ever do that, or anything like that, again. EVER.

[luvmagoldn]

This would be a huge security issue where I work. The lack of judgement on your co-worker's part is a whole different issue.

Absolutely follow up on this.

[ohgillian]

Needs to be addressed asap.

[msmerymac]

Definitely address it with her so she understand it's not okay, figure out how to not let her do it again, and if you are her boss, put a warning in her file.

[raangoli]

This is a huge no-no and you should absolutely address it. In the future, I'd also make sure that my workstation is locked every time I step away. Even if for less than a minute. If you're on a Windows machine, it takes 2 seconds: just hit the windows key + L at the same time.

[mbcdefg]

Jan 14, 2014 12:51:49 GMT -5 raangoli said:

This is a huge no-no and you should absolutely address it. In the future, I'd also make sure that my workstation is locked every time I step away. Even if for less than a minute. If you're on a Windows machine, it takes 2 seconds: just hit the windows key + L at the same time.

I do this as well. I worked in a company a few years ago where it was mandatory due to the sensitive nature of the material we were working with, and now I just do it out of habit.

That being said, IT or this coworker may have remote access to your computer, so you'll want to address this with someone ASAP.

Did you give this person your password at any point? Does IT know your password? (In every job I've worked, IT has said that they're not allowed to know our password.)

[glynn]

It needs to be discussed.

[Deleted]

Maybe I'm too passive, but if the email was appropriate I'd approach her calmly first and let her know what you received and ask her about why/how she did this.

It sounds like poor judgment on her part but without knowing her motives I don't think it's worth a fit of rage quite yet. Maybe she's just clueless and didn't realize this would be an issue, or maybe this was something that was a normal and approved occurrence at her last job.

Either way I'd address it for sure and let her know this isn't acceptable in the future. I'd also ask if she sent any other emails so you aren't out of the loop.

[lillaguma]

I'd be furious, but like buckybells suggested I'd approach her first and talk to her about it calmly. Ask her why she did it and how. Since you're training her I'm assuming she's new to your company, is she a recent grad? I can't imagine anyone thinking this is okay to do without getting permission, but she really needs to be set straight.

[y4m]

I agree that it's not fit of rage worthy yet. Figure out what happened, discuss why that's not appropriate assuming it was intentional, and document. Treat it seriously, but not in an accusatory manner.

[vanillacourage]

Even if she had the best of intentions, signing your name to the email and then not even notifying you as a courtesy that the email had gone out are huge lapses in judgement. Since she's still just a trainee she would have been fired at some of the companies I've worked for. 

[orangeblossom]

Jan 14, 2014 13:39:27 GMT -5 vanillacourage said:

Even if she had the best of intentions, signing your name to the email and then not even notifying you as a courtesy that the email had gone out are huge lapses in judgement. Since she's still just a trainee she would have been fired at some of the companies I've worked for. 

This. You just do not do this, you absolutely let your supervisor know that you sent the email, even if it's just as a courtesy, but she really shouldn't have to start with.

I get wanting to be helpful, and we've all done things when we're new at a job that may not have been the right way to help, but this needs to be addressed ASAP.

[aurora]

Since she is a trainee, there is value in approaching her calmly to ask what she could possibly have been thinking. The lesson won't go over as well if you're enraged! That said, she needs to understand that this would be a firing offense at *many* companies. Depending on your company, how long she's been training, etc., I would think a temporary probationary status could even be appropriate while she regains your trust and learns to exercise appropriate judgment.

[lime]

I am overall pretty breezy about a lot of things, but this would not be one of them.

[dexteroni]

I read your update, and - what? So you didn't know for sure that your trainee sent the email? omg. I thought you did. I would have never advised such a drastic reaction if I had known you weren't even certain that she had done it. Why did you think she had? And how did you find out that the client copied text from last year? And why did she do that? So many questions! lol.

[sometimesrunner]

Jan 14, 2014 18:33:44 GMT -5 dexteroni said:

I read your update, and - what? So you didn't know for sure that your trainee sent the email? omg. I thought you did. I would have never advised such a drastic reaction if I had known you weren't even certain that she had done it. Why did you think she had? And how did you find out that the client copied text from last year? And why did she do that? So many questions! lol.

My coworker laid the completed project on my desk today. So email I didn't recognize + coworker recently working on the project made me go down that line of thinking. Gah this could have gone awful for me. Lol. And yes this client is very weird. She has never once initiated an email. If I email her something, she will respond with an email but otherwise she sends me faxes. No joke. And she is WAY to young to be this poor with technology.

[dexteroni]

Jan 14, 2014 21:05:07 GMT -5 sometimesrunner said:

Jan 14, 2014 18:33:44 GMT -5 dexteroni said:

I read your update, and - what? So you didn't know for sure that your trainee sent the email? omg. I thought you did. I would have never advised such a drastic reaction if I had known you weren't even certain that she had done it. Why did you think she had? And how did you find out that the client copied text from last year? And why did she do that? So many questions! lol.

My coworker laid the completed project on my desk today. So email I didn't recognize + coworker recently working on the project made me go down that line of thinking. Gah this could have gone awful for me. Lol. And yes this client is very weird. She has never once initiated an email. If I email her something, she will respond with an email but otherwise she sends me faxes. No joke. And she is WAY to young to be this poor with technology.

Oh wow, yes, this really could have been awful for you. I'm glad it was just your weird client being her usual weird self. I hope you're free of her now that this project is over!