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I work as a deli clerk for one of the largest retail grocery stores in the united states. We have been having many problems, and I tried talking to management about the problems, but nothing ever got resolved. The corporation has an "anonymous helpline" for employees that can't find solutions anywhere else. So I decided to give it a try. I called the corporate office and they gave me the anonymous helpline phone number, and they also gave me the anonymous helpline email. The website says that employees do not have to use their name, and the employee can't get into any trouble for reporting any problems. So I decided to send a very lengthy email to the anonymous helpline and I talked about quite a few problems that I was experiencing, and I also discussed some personal problems that I have had with some of my bosses and upper management. I did not use my name because I wanted to remain anonymous.
The corporate office received my anonymous email the following day, and then they forwarded the email to my deli manager, the store manager, the district manager, and the HR manager. My email address includes my first initial and my last name. The corporate office made no attempt to keep my email address anonymous, and it took less than 24 hours for all of my bosses to find out that I was the one who sent the email. Each of my bosses received a copy of the email and all of them were able to read every confidential thing that I said about them.
As I was about to finish my shift, I was called up to the managers office, and all of my bosses were sitting there. They each had a copy of my "anonymous" email, and they spent half an hour questioning me and yelling at me for any personal comments that involved each of them.
Since then, it has been humiliating for me to go to work every day because of all the different looks that I get from all of my bosses. I used to be on good terms with all of them, but as a result of the "anonymous" email, now none of them want to talk to me unless it is to give me grief about something.
So now I am looking for another job. I'm wondering what my next plan of action should be. I doubt that it would do any good to contact the union. I've never sued anybody, but I'm wondering if I should contact a lawyer about filing a lawsuit against the corporation for breach of confidentiality. Does anybody have any advice about what I should do?
I work as a deli clerk for one of the largest retail grocery stores in the united states. We have been having many problems, and I tried talking to management about the problems, but nothing ever got resolved. The corporation has an "anonymous helpline" for employees that can't find solutions anywhere else. So I decided to give it a try. I called the corporate office and they gave me the anonymous helpline phone number, and they also gave me the anonymous helpline email. The website says that employees do not have to use their name, and the employee can't get into any trouble for reporting any problems. So I decided to send a very lengthy email to the anonymous helpline and I talked about quite a few problems that I was experiencing, and I also discussed some personal problems that I have had with some of my bosses and upper management. I did not use my name because I wanted to remain anonymous.
The corporate office received my anonymous email the following day, and then they forwarded the email to my deli manager, the store manager, the district manager, and the HR manager. My email address includes my first initial and my last name. The corporate office made no attempt to keep my email address anonymous, and it took less than 24 hours for all of my bosses to find out that I was the one who sent the email. Each of my bosses received a copy of the email and all of them were able to read every confidential thing that I said about them.
As I was about to finish my shift, I was called up to the managers office, and all of my bosses were sitting there. They each had a copy of my "anonymous" email, and they spent half an hour questioning me and yelling at me for any personal comments that involved each of them.
Since then, it has been humiliating for me to go to work every day because of all the different looks that I get from all of my bosses. I used to be on good terms with all of them, but as a result of the "anonymous" email, now none of them want to talk to me unless it is to give me grief about something.
So now I am looking for another job. I'm wondering what my next plan of action should be. I doubt that it would do any good to contact the union. I've never sued anybody, but I'm wondering if I should contact a lawyer about filing a lawsuit against the corporation for breach of confidentiality. Does anybody have any advice about what I should do?
Yet you used your initial and full last name. I dont think you have a case based on that alone. Just take it as a learning experience.
The balance issue with 'anonymous tips' is that they allow people to speak the truth without fear of reprisal, but they can also be a reprisal tool themselves. You sent an 'anonymous' email using personally identifying information.
Rule of thumb about picking fights; don't do it unless you're prepared for a fight. In this case, you just wanted to be a bomb-thrower, offer a one-sided narrative that undoubtedly harmed the reputations of other people without consequence.
Secondly, in order to sue, there has to be an actual law or agreement that was violated. Not just some abstraction like "breach of confidentiality". Was there an explicit confidentiality agreement that outlined how personally identifying information would be handled?
Lastly, one thing about employees that have problems with everyone else; the problem is rarely everyone else. This isn't to say some places don't have bad working environments but when I hear about someone sending an email where they complain about the job and the employees and the upper management and the lower management, that is someone who is best leveraged out the door since there's a 99% chance you're dealing with a job-entitlement headcase.
The balance issue with 'anonymous tips' is that they allow people to speak the truth without fear of reprisal, but they can also be a reprisal tool themselves. You sent an 'anonymous' email using personally identifying information.
Rule of thumb about picking fights; don't do it unless you're prepared for a fight. In this case, you just wanted to be a bomb-thrower, offer a one-sided narrative that undoubtedly harmed the reputations of other people without consequence.
Secondly, in order to sue, there has to be an actual law or agreement that was violated. Not just some abstraction like "breach of confidentiality". Was there an explicit confidentiality agreement that outlined how personally identifying information would be handled?
Lastly, one thing about employees that have problems with everyone else; the problem is rarely everyone else. This isn't to say some places don't have bad working environments but when I hear about someone sending an email where they complain about the job and the employees and the upper management and the lower management, that is someone who is best leveraged out the door since there's a 99% chance you're dealing with a job-entitlement headcase.
Exactly. Well said.
OP, you have no financial or tangible loss. Nothing to sue for. Perhaps next time, don't try to chuck people under the bus when you "had a good relationship". Nobody likes a snitch.
You state in one part of your post that you wanted to remain anonymous and then stated you used an email address that consists of your first initial and last name. It doesn't seem like you wanted to remain anonymous at all.
I hate the litigious knee-jerk responses people in society have, but in this case I would suggest you seek the counsel of an attorney. The point of having an anonymous helpline is so that corporations can address issues further down the chain, while protecting the employee. Regardless of the content, regardless of your intention, they failed to do this.
You've already suffered some backlash because they didn't protect you, and I'm guessing there will be more to come. It's the person who handled this at the corporate level who put your job at risk, not you for exercising an option the corporation has made available to its employees.
I would speak to an attorney, but apart from that, I would be asking myself some questions if I claimed to want to remain anonymous only to use an email address making it easy to identify me.
I'm wondering what my next plan of action should be. I doubt that it would do any good to contact the union. I've never sued anybody, but I'm wondering if I should contact a lawyer about filing a lawsuit against the corporation for breach of confidentiality. Does anybody have any advice about what I should do?
Wait, you have a union? I would contact them if I were you. It is not the anonymity that matters, it is the retaliation. You should have contacted them about all of your problems in the first place instead of your corporate tip line.
You are not going to get anywhere on the confidentiality lawsuit without union support anyway (since your only chance is probably if the confidentiality of complaints is written into the union contract).
What kind of help did you want to get from the anonymous help line? If you wanted something resolved, you HAD to know that they would contact the store management.
The thing that will keep a decent attorney from taking your case is that fact that you willingly used your personal email that has identifying information on it.
It is not the anonymity that matters, it is the retaliation.
The problem is, it doesn't sound like they've retaliated.
The OP is complaining about getting 'dirty looks' and 'feeling embarrassed' after he/she sent a derogatory email about other people who subsequently found out. STOP THE PRESSES! THIS JUST IN! IF YOU THROW PEOPLE UNDER THE BUS, THEY WON'T LIKE YOU.
While there's always the possibility that it's truly a giant conspiracy against them, the whole narrative made by this person is immediately recognizable to anyone with any experience managing people, strongly suggesting this person is a bomb-thrower who causes trouble yet naively fails to understand why people who they defame don't like them in return.
I maintained an anonymous suggestion box. The general rule of thumb was, complaints that focused on another person were usually just personality conflicts and could be thrown away. Complaints that focused on issues (that may or may not involve anyone specific) were usually valid.
As someone who's been through this rodeo a few times, I can recognize someone like the OP from 100 miles off, faster than they can recognize themselves.
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