You need to know exactly who has access to your email.
Not a spy.
Not a cybercriminal.
Someone much closer to home – your own team.
And you really need to remember that when you’re busy with your secret, not-exactly-by-the-book employment manoeuvres. Because the moment those emails aren’t private, things can get expensive… very quickly.
Take one golf club, we know. The General Manager didn’t realise that his entire office team – including Betty, the wife of the bar manager – could log into his inbox. Not only could they, but as part of their daily work, they were.
So when the GM hired a new Food & Beverage Manager above the bar manager, the bar manager’s wife found out before her husband did.
Let’s just say… it wasn’t a good day for their marriage.
And here’s where it got even messier.
The GM was quietly “performance managing” the Course Manager – someone with over three years’ service – but hadn’t even reached a first-stage disciplinary.
Despite that, the GM had already contacted a recruiter, advertised the job, interviewed candidates… and picked the one he wanted to offer it to.
Then came the fatal mistake.
He told the recruiter that he needed to get rid of the current Course Manager – but it would be tricky because the man’s wife had breast cancer, and he’d be “more emotional than normal.”
That, right there, is a perfect storm for an employment tribunal:
- Constructive dismissal of the Course Manager
- Discrimination by association because of his wife’s illness
The only thing that could have made it worse? If the GM had physically assaulted him in front of the membership.
None of this is just “bad practice” – it’s tens of thousands of pounds bad. And all of it could have been avoided if the GM had locked down his emails and stopped leaking his own strategy to the very people it affected.
Now, instead of managing the problem, the GM is likely to be fired for incompetence, negligence and sheer stupidity – and the club will probably end up paying a hefty settlement just to make this particular “email leak” disappear.
Moral of the story?
Check who can read your emails. Because sometimes the real danger isn’t outside hackers – it’s sitting two desks away.
