inappropriate e-mail sent by owner

ctmumm · May 2004

Recently one of the partners of the company sent an e-mail to all (30) EE. The e-mail was a copy of a story, written by his wife providing a comic and graphic account of her recent hysterectomy. Very few EE have met "Mrs. Partner". This created a lot of "water cooler" talk. Two EE were uncomfortable enough with the content that they replied to the e-mail as such. One received a "...I have a life" reply while the other received "...if I offended you, I'm sorry". As the HR rep of the company the two EE sent me copies of the reponses. Should I take any action other than filing the e-mail? Is the company (other partner) at risk here?

Cinderella · May 2004

Who do you report to?

ctmumm · May 2004

The partner that sent the e-mail.

Cinderella · May 2004

He sounds like a schmuck. I would be tempted to smack him around. However, he's the boss so if you want to keep your job then forget about it. It's not THAT big of a deal...not like he grabbed a secretary's behind or something.

Sounds like he realized what he did was a bit dumb and probably regrets it and I'd bet he won't pull that again. Even if he does, if you find yourself very uncomfortable with him acting that way as your boss, you can vote on that by sending out your resume.

Don D · May 2004

For me, the remark, "If I offended you, I'm sorry," says it all. Make nothing OF it as nothing was intended BY it. What possible 'action' do you propose you might take? If I were an owner of a company and did the same, and one of my subordinates tried to 'make something of it' or 'take any action' (as you suggest), I would summarily fire that person. The appropriate response from anyone who wanted to respond at all would have been, "Hope you're feeling better soon."

Rockie · May 2004

I'd leave it alone. The guy apologized ... probably thought he was sharing something personal and humorous with his staff...and did not have any ill intent at all.

I doubt very seriously if he will ever do it again.

Crout · May 2004

Why would you even file the email, unless you mean in the circular file cabinet. This is a non-issue.

Gillian3 · May 2004

The apology ended it. It's over.

marc · May 2004

This just shows you that someone can make something out of almost anything. Did the story use inappropriate language and graphic descriptions of anatomy? A hysterectomy is a common procedure - perhaps the story was the wifes way of dealing with the trauma of the procedure. Almost therapeutic as it were.

I am with the others. I cannot imagine going anywhere with this.

inappropriate e-mail sent by owner

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