Jeez, Deb - doesn't your H have a clue how these things work??????? He should NOT be having these convos with monster in print!!!!! She'll end up filing a sexual harassment lawsuit against him if he's not careful. (And yes, the "poor woman" is presumed to be the victim in these cases!).
Let me break this down, so maybe you can explain it to him (and my H was forced to go to an anger management class by his work just because he called a woman into his office who had done something sneaky and underhanded against him, and asked her why she did it. You'd have to know my H, but he's the least threatening man, soft-spoken even when angry. But people know how to work the HR system, they run to file a complaint over the least little thing to protect their behinds, then the person complained against - especially a man - is forever suspect).
So - here's my analysis:
Quote: -----Original Message----- From: H Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 12:57 PM To: monster Cc: monsters supervisor Subject: FW:
Since I received no response back regarding this e-mail can I assume that you will contact P by phone?
The way I see it, your H threw the first stone by cc ing this to the supervisor. Looks like a deliberate attempt to get her in trouble. And jeez, people don't always answer their email that promptly. A nicer way to say this would have been to email: "Since I haven't heard back from you yet, I told the patient you would call her."
Quote: From: monster Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 1:44 PM To: H Cc: monsters supervisor Subject: RE:
Yes, I will call her and address her issues w/ her medication. I did not see where you marked your email as "Importance: High" so it was view along w/ my other emails in the order they came. When you are needing a response prior to the end of your session (in this case, 20 minutes), please mark your emails as "Importance: High" and I will do my best to address the issue prior to the patient leaving. Thanks
Sounds to me like she gave him an entirely appropriate and professional response. She likes urgent emails to be so marked. She will respond more quickly if emails are marked this way. Seems entirely logical and appropriate to me, and I guarantee you, it will seem that way to her supervisor too.
Quote: From: H Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 1:58 PM To: monster Subject: RE: Importance: High
Please; I don’t want or need a lecture from you for your inattention. I’m sick of your excuses, personal and or professional. I just want a response from you so that I know my client’s needs are being addressed. Calling her later today is fine. I just need to know that you are acting on the e-mail, if I don’t hear from you I can only assume you are not and so I e-mail (supervisor) as well. Funny,(supervisor) responds to my e-mails in a timely manner, even though not marked “High Importance”.
H goes off the deep end here. His response is completely inappropriate. She was professional, he gets personal - and notice, he didn't cc THIS to her supervisor - because he knows it isn't appropriate. He should never write anything he doesn't want the administration to see - I guarantee you she probably forwarded this to her supervisor as evidence of how he is "harassing" her.
I suspect his reaction was so emotional because she answered him so aloofly -
And your H is an idiot to threaten taking this to HR. Their only concern is with not getting sued - and they pretty well know he'd have no case for harassment against her, sad though that may be, but that SHE would have a pretty good chance against him (poor innocent girl, seduced and then harassed). This was a hard lesson for my H to learn - that even though it was a couple of women in his office who were harassing HIM, he was only reacting to their harassment, but because he was a male and their superior, as soon as they made a complaint, he was seen as guilty and a legal liability in the eyes of HR.
Another thing your H needs to know - he should NOT type ANYTHING on a work computer - even emails to you - that he wouldn't want administration to read. A lot of businesses now have keystroke-logger type programs so they can theoretically read everything you type.
Educate him, Deb. He's gonna get into a world of trouble if he doesn't stop this.
