'Is it normal for people to take a screenshot of your direct Teams message, and send it in an email to other people in the company?': Boss sends out screenshot of direct message with employee, employee wonders if it's a breach of privacy

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  via Getty Images For Unsplash+

  _{Scene is illustrative and does not depict actual individuals or events.}

  
  A stressed employee sits at her desk

• Is it normal for people to take a screenshot of your direct Teams message, and send it in an email to other people in the company?

  -u/u/Majestic_Confusion30

• I had received some information from a client yesterday that was alarming, but I strongly suspected that it was inaccurate. I sent a direct message to the manager in operations who this affected most, just to give him a heads-up, but I did note that I suspected the information to be false, and that I would have confirmation on that by Monday.

  To my surprise, this person promptly sent out an email with high importance which included my screenshotted private message to my boss, and other senior leadership (with me on copy). Am I crazy, or was this super ***e and unnecessary? I am especially embarrassed because I had said something like "I'm trying my best here" in the private message.

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  via Stephen Phillips - Hostreviews.co.uk

  A slack message on someone's laptop screen

• When you're airing something that someone thought was private, that's pretty nefarious behavior. You don't want to betray someone's trust by airing out their dirty laundry, even if it's in a professional manner. It can be difficult to know how to respond when a person in a place of authority does something that you think is wrong. You want to speak out about it, but you also want to be tactful enough as to not lose your job. The person in this story was trying to work that out, and doing the best they could to figure out how to move forward. 

• I followed up on the email and clarified for everyone what I had already told this person in the private Teams chat, which was that I am verifying the information with the client and will get back to everyone on Monday about whether this was truly an issue or not.

  This is not the first time this person has done something like this to me. I honestly have no idea what I have ever done to him, but I am never going to send him a direct message again, and will keep everything extremely professional from now on.

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  via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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  A stressed woman rubs her temples while sitting at her desk

• Sometimes you need outside perspective to help you figure out if something is normal or not. You can get lost in your own perspective and lose sight of everything else. You don't know what is normal and what should be called out. When this happens in the workplace, it's okay to call it out. You don't have to sit and take everything that comes your way, even from your boss. Keep reading to see what perspective this employee gained after reaching out to the internet and see what commenters had to say in response. 

• Edit

  Thanks everyone for the perspective!

  So it seems like the general consensus is that while my colleague may have been a bit of a d*** by blasting my message to everyone like that, my approach to the situation was also not correct. I should have either held off on telling anyone until I confirmed the information on Monday, or included everyone on an official email, instead of sending a direct message to this colleague.

  I'm only a year or so into my first professional role so this is definitely a big learning experience. I'm going to avoid using Teams chats for any but the most routine and low-importance things moving forward.

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  via Brett Jordan

  A closeup on a mail app on an iphone

• LoudBreakfast9703

  Yeah, extremely unprofessional of them. I think you have the right of it to keep anything in future strictly professional so they can’t sting you again.

  I’d also rest assured that those sent the screenshot have also logged the lack of professionalism from your colleague, so more fool him.

• DarkLordTofer

  I wouldn’t say it’s standard practice. But if information needs to be shared then yes. I’ve sent status updates to one manager and he just screenshot my teams message and forwarded it to another manager who was asking for an update.

• SkredberryShortcake

  We talk on Teams left and right, many times attempting to resolve an issue.

  It might be a screen grab, might be a copy / paste, but we do quote each other when needed.

• Plastic-Neat-3962

  It was unnecessary and completely pointless. He could've just sent a generic "hey we got some new info and so and so is looking into it. Will keep you updated..." blah blah blah. Some people are just ratty like this. I try to keep my conversations as short as possible. Makes me sound a bit curt but there is just too many dickheads nowadays.

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