Need Job Advice; Please Help

I do AutoCad at a land planning/design company. With the economy the way it is, the manager told us all to look for other jobs while the owner was out of town.

We all started looking for other jobs.

Weeks later, one of the designers, who is a pretty good friend, goes out of town. While he is out, the manager hacked into his personal e-mail account. The designer knew this had happened as e-mails were marked as read while he had no computer; his provider confirmed the access from our office.

The designer was fired the next day.

The owner may or may not know about the manager getting into the personal e-mail, and is pretty spineless when it comes to confrontation.

The manager is a manipulative backstabbing witch that deters potential contracts, but the owner refuses to see that.

The designer was fired for doing What He Was TOLD to do.

Whether or not it is illegal for an employer to hack into personal e-mail, doesn't change my opinion that it is a horrible and dishonorable thing to do.

The Pickle: I am about 80% of the company's income at this time. Is that enough leverage for me to open this can of worms, and try to do the right thing at the risk of getting fired myself?

Not if someone will do your job for less....

All doing the right thing will do is get you in trouble. Your not going to help your friend and your going to hurt yourself.

What would you hope to accomplish? It sounds like the owner is aware of the managers behavior and chooses to either ignore it or accept it. The company e-mail is not personal regardless of what the employee was told to do. Keep your eyes and ears open for other opportunities but keep your job until something else comes along.

Dont be a puss- Black mail the manager!

Sometimes you just have to bite your lip and take it. If the economy wasn't so bad and you could easily find another job then I'd say speak up and say something. But right now you have to do what's best for you/your family and that's most likely being quiet.

HBHoss said:

The company e-mail is not personal regardless of what the employee was told to do.

Click to expand...

It wasn't the company e-mail, it was his hotmail account, and at no time were the e-mails transmitted across company equipment.

Anyway, this morning, I got pushed, and probably unwisely, I pushed back. The e-mail thing was really the tip of the iceberg of my disapproval of policy. I dumped all my concerns and opinions on the table, and they decided to re-evaluate some of their management decisions.

Considering if they fired me, the company would be bankrupt in about 2 weeks, I felt like I had some level of impunity. Everything worked out since I ponied up, but still... I wouldn't want to repeat that eggshell stepping anytime soon.