When you receive an email by mistake at work: don't you delete it? (2014, job)

[GSPNative]

There are news reports in the past few days about a high-powered professional who accidentally emailed a sensitive internal document to his and his client's adversary. It got publicized, and even the document is now posted online.

I find that horrifying. We all make mistakes, particularly sending emails to the wrong people. Surely everyone has done that--or will do that--at least once.

When you receive an email by mistake, don't you delete it and maybe notify the sender? Some professions have codes of conduct that require that. But even if you don't work in a field with a code of conduct, wouldn't you do that?

The professional is probably incurring a lot of career damage right now. But to me the bad guy in this situation is the recipient of the email, who published it online and sent it to the press instead of deleting it.

Thanks.

[MCNJ]

Did he Reply to All? Not look at the auto-filled names in the To box? Aside from being embarrassing, it can be devastating to a company.

But, to answer your question, when I receive an email clearly not meant to me, I delete it after notifying the sender.

[gball721]

Originally Posted by GSPNative

There are news reports in the past few days about a high-powered professional who accidentally emailed a sensitive internal document to his and his client's adversary. It got publicized, and even the document is now posted online.

I find that horrifying. We all make mistakes, particularly sending emails to the wrong people. Surely everyone has done that--or will do that--at least once.

When you receive an email by mistake, don't you delete it and maybe notify the sender? Some professions have codes of conduct that require that. But even if you don't work in a field with a code of conduct, wouldn't you do that?

The professional is probably incurring a lot of career damage right now. But to me the bad guy in this situation is the recipient of the email, who published it online and sent it to the press instead of deleting it.

Thanks.

I haven't been on the receiving end of an email sent to the wrong person (sent to me), but I've sent non-sensitive emails to the wrong "John A. Smith" out of my institution's directory a couple of times. Both times the recipient kindly replied to me and said I had the wrong John Smith. I found this very courteous and helpful. Considering it, I would not just delete an email sent to me by mistake...I'd just reply to the sender and tell em you've got the wrong guy.

[GuyInSD]

Originally Posted by gball721

...I would not just delete an email sent to me by mistake...I'd just reply to the sender and tell em you've got the wrong guy.

Yup - I've done this exact thing a few times over the years
(I work for a large DoD laboratory located in Southern California - there is someone else who shares my name working for another DoD laboratory on the East coast, and I occasionally receive emails clearly intended for him - when I reply to the sender I include my doppelganger on the "To" line; I would hope he would reciprocate if anything intended for me gets sent to him by mistake).

[Disgustedman]

Heh! Had a temp service accidentally included me in an email that discussed planned removals of Temps not performing well. Replied that "I'll keep this quiet, but don't keep me on the list"


They responded "Thanks" and included a (embarrassed emoj)

[Parnassia]

I would definitely reply to sender informing them of what I felt was a mistake. I would leave the message entirely alone (no forwarding, re-directing, sharing, deleting, etc) until they respond to me.

[North Beach Person]

I had a Vice Principal that would do that, email observations and evaluation documents for a teacher not to just the involved teacher but the rest of the staff.

Just one more reason I walked out of the building after almost 31 years the last Wednesday of October 2014 and never returned. It was really the recommendation that I have more Kleenex stations around the room that pushed it over the edge.

[elnina]

Originally Posted by gball721

I haven't been on the receiving end of an email sent to the wrong person (sent to me), but I've sent non-sensitive emails to the wrong "John A. Smith" out of my institution's directory a couple of times. Both times the recipient kindly replied to me and said I had the wrong John Smith. I found this very courteous and helpful. Considering it, I would not just delete an email sent to me by mistake...I'd just reply to the sender and tell em you've got the wrong guy.

We do exactly that with emails and faxes.

[AtkinsonDan]

At my first job after graduating college, I was one of three people with the same first and last name. We all had unique middle initials. One of the other two was an executive in another division. I would receive many emails intended for him. My standard protocol was to forward the emails to him, notify the sender and then delete the email for my mailbox. In subsequent scenarios I try to do the same steps but if I don't know the intended recipient I will just notify the sender and delete once they acknowledge my communication. I never save improperly addressed emails, I have enough of a history of legitimate email clogging up my mailbox.

[Nov3]

Our business email had a standard disclaimer .

Delete being the operative directive.