Our last blog post discussed whether your employer can monitor your emails at work. The answer was a “YES.”
Need more confirmation about the perils of using your office email account to start that “new business” or join a “competitor?”
A suit filed by Performance Food Group Co., LLC, a food-service distributor, alleges that a former employee sent confidential and proprietary information to a competitor, all from his work email account.
The leak was discovered after the employee gave two-weeks’ notice of his intent to resign. He was terminated. The competitor to whom the employee sent the confidential information had extended him a job offer at the time of the breach, but subsequently withdrew it. Another competitor, however, hired the employee. In its lawsuit, Performance Food Group seeks punitive and compensatory damages, as well as injunctive relief, barring the former employee from future violations of his non-compete agreement.
My Take: This employee just handed a baseball bat to his ex-employer….a baseball bat the ex-employer will use to repeatedly hit him/her over the head!