should I expose my boss for her mean and gossipy Twitter account?

by Alison Green on October 11, 2021

A reader writes:

I joined a small (~15 employees) company several years ago. While there, my direct supervisor made an offhand remark about some joke she had tweeted. I was able to search for a string of words and find her Twitter account. Her Twitter does not include her name, but her bio mentions the industry she works in, her profile pic is an identifiable selfie, and she regularly posts selfies and has posted pictures from a conference with the company’s logo in the background.

I would periodically check in on her Twitter account without her knowing. It’s how I learned about our company being acquired by a larger (~500 employees) one before the news was public, the imminent firing of a colleague a day before it happened, and way too much about her personal life. She also tweeted gossip about “members of her team” (the 2-6 employees she supervised in my time working there), including times when we “fucked up,” someone needing time off to terminate a pregnancy, and a few things about my relationship and sexuality. She would also boast about the big bonuses and raises her boss gave her during times when I received insulting ones (a 1.5% salary increase one year).

Some of this is just dumb. Some of it is actually illegal.

When we were a small company, I felt I had nobody to bring this up to because there was no HR and because she had a close personal relationship with the founder (her supervisor) and his wife. After the acquisition, I still felt that I couldn’t bring this up (due to the Covid job market and my need for job security).

I was laid off a couple months ago as the parent company has had some major fumbles — 30% reduction in staff. She still works there, and the founder who was her supervisor is now in a higher position. She offered to write me a letter of recommendation, which I included along with a contact list of other (more trustworthy) professional references in my search for something new. Luckily, I found something quickly. I start my new job next week. It pays better. The severance check from the old place has cleared. She is (mostly) in my rearview mirror.

My question is, do I anonymously send dozens (possibly hundreds) of work-related tweets I’ve screengrabbed to HR at the parent company? My reasons for wanting to do this fall into two categories:

1. My own anger at the situation of my layoff, the way she treated me as my manager, and the years of powerlessness and waning support I felt (I can admit this!). The layoff was one of those “remote meeting with HR, immediate remote shut-off of company laptop” affairs, so I had no exit interview where I could bring this up.

2. Legitimate concern for the people who have to work under her currently and in the future, knowing what she says about them and how dumb and risky her behavior is as a manager. Regardless of my impotent anger, I know that the information I have could help others even though it would hurt her.

I believe everyone should be able to blow off steam about work and say things they wouldn’t otherwise say in the office. I also understand that this might happen on social media rather than over a drink at the end of the day. But her social media isn’t exactly “anonymous,” nor locked (it’s public! Anyone could find it and read it! She has over 1,000 followers!) and therefore poses a risk to the company and violates their policies that we have to re-learn every year.

I am much more lenient about those policies when it comes to low-level employees who don’t supervise anyone. My own personal morality math changes when they’re in charge of others. She has also boasted recently about the possibility of (and been in meetings about) moving up in the company now that her boss has. She is a massive liability to this company — one which I don’t feel a lot of love toward, but still!

She doesn’t support any dependents (single, no kids, parents don’t rely on her) and the job market isn’t terrible right now. Is this too vengeful? It’s a lesson she should learn, but is it my lesson to teach her?

Send the screenshots. Let your former company decide for themselves if it’s something they care enough about to address.

This manager is tweeting about an employee’s abortion. She is tweeting about employees’ sexuality.

Those are intensely private things that no manager should be commenting on, let alone publicly, let alone in cavalier and gossipy posts on Twitter.

Not to mention spilling confidential news about a company acquisition! And firings before they had happened! What is she thinking?

And this would all be terrible enough if she were doing it on a locked, private account, but she’s doing it on a public one?!

Sometimes when you know that part of your motivation for an action is that you dislike someone or feel anger or resentment toward them, it can be hard to separate that out from other possible reasons to take the action. But even if you liked your boss or didn’t feel personally injured by her, you’d still have good reasons to flag what she’s doing.

Protecting the company doesn’t need to be one of those reasons at this point (if she spills all their top-secret plans on Twitter, that’s not your problem), but you’re on solid ground in wanting something done about someone who’s profoundly mishandling personal information about her employees.

If she still manages people or will manage people in the future (and it sounds like both are the case), this isn’t just an act of vengeance and it’s not about teaching her a lesson. It’s about taking action on behalf of the people she still has power over.

Send the screenshots.

Read an update to this letter here. 

You may also like:
{ 322 comments }

{ 322 comments… read them below }

  1. Myrin*

    Oh wow, this boss sounds like an absolute delight to work with and especially under. :|
    I’m glad you got out, OP, and I’m sorry for all you’ve experienced with this person and company so far. Go ahead with the screenshots. I’m enthusiastically rooting for you!

    1. TheyThemTheirs*

      Nothing like sharing confidential information over twitter first thing in the morning right?!

    1. Littorally*

      Same. It’s a very high bar to clear for the Twitter content to be bad enough to go to HR over after you’ve left, but… well, this clears that bar.

      1. TheyThemTheirs*

        Yeah, I’m glad my desk doesn’t face any of my coworkers, because I made several faces while reading this.

      2. Where’s the Orchestra?*

        Yeah. Twitter is a really crazy place – and the rules of what is okay and what isn’t can be hard for those that aren’t on it. But this person is just a walking time bomb- I would send the tweet screen grabs in clear conscience. They need to know that she is a walking lawsuit waiting to happen. What they do with the information once they have it is their business.

      3. Jules the 3rd*

        Agreed. OP, you are never obligated to risk yourself to expose an abuser, but if you feel safe to do so, it’s ethically ok. Send the screenshots.

      4. NotAnotherManager!*

        This is where I am. I’m usually a get-out-and-don’t-look-back sort, especially since OP’s landed well, but ex-boss’s tweets are beyond the pale and they have no business supervising other people or having access to the sensitive information they’re tweeting about.

    3. Lance*

      Yup, adding another agreement to this. As Alison says, company acquisitions, firings, directly making fun of employees, meeting room pics with clear company logo… oh, boy. This woman’s Twitter feed is a live HR disaster.

      1. Where’s the Orchestra?*

        Yeah – this person is a walking lawsuit waiting to happen. Let them know to protect the jobs of the people who are still there.

      2. Junior Dev*

        not just HR! I remember my last job drilled into me that we should NOT discuss anything that might impact the company’s stock (which the acquisition stuff does) in public, including on the bus or in a crowded restaurant, etc. Yikes.

    4. Bilateralrope*

      Yeah. My question is not if this should be shared with the company, but how long the letter writer should wait before sharing it with someone else.

    5. LKW*

      Just the acquisition news made my eyebrows raise… the rest of the tweets… my eyebrows have lifted off my forehead and are now flying high overhead.

      Send the screen shots. They need to know that they have someone who is a legal liability.

  3. Keymaster of Gozer (she/her)*

    Seconding. Send the screenshots.

    (Memories of the utter xyz who decided that it was her right to blab all over social media when I got a termination. I still have no idea how she knew. 20+ years later and I STLL hope she walks on upturned D4s to this day.)

          1. Jay Gobbo*

            +1! LiveJournal was already fairly popular when I joined in 2002. We didn’t call it social media, but that’s absolutely what it was!

            1. Keymaster of Gozer (she/her)*

              Back in my ‘I hate the world’ days I was lead moderator on a very, very nasty childfree group there. The kind of stuff I used to say would (rightfully) get me kicked off this site, my job, most of my family etc. today. It was absolutely social media.

              1. Anon today*

                Ooh, I wonder if that was the group I was part of for a while. Maybe not; the general tone was “kids are okay, but NOT for me,” although some threads got pretty nasty.

                1. Keymaster of Gozer (she/her)*

                  No. This one was genuinely nasty. And I am ashamed as all hell at the stuff I used to say.

              3. une autre Cassandra*

                Ah, angry childfree LJ! I wonder if I was part of the community you moderated, Keymaster.

                1. Honoria*

                  I spent a lot of time on customers suck, thereby found childfree, and occasionally popped in on childfree_hardcore.

            1. Hosta*

              I haven’t thought of IRC in years! Now I miss it. Sort of.

              It sure looked advanced and sci-fi at the time, didn’t it?

      2. mdv*

        Close enough, when facebook has been around for 17 years … there were other platforms that were the equivalent of social media back then, and for the sake of these posts, is it really worth nitpicking the details?

        1. quill*

          So iirc Myspace didn’t predate facebook, but it was more popular than facebook among my cohort for a while… (not very long, we were a little young and caught the tail end of it)

          But I know of forums that were around in 1998, and IIRC Gozer has always been in tech, where early adopting is much more common.

            1. banoffee pie*

              Does anyone else remember those unregulated msn chatrooms in the early 2000’s? Wow they were a free-for-all. I was probably way too young to be in there.

              1. COHikerGirl*

                Yahoo! chat rooms. Late 90s. The age of a/s/l. We still had dial-up at home then. My parents had Mayberry USA, Internet sheriff. I figured out a way to get around the block of Yahoo! chat rooms. It was the beginnings of social media. There were definitely regulars in some of the chat rooms and you could totally spread stuff around. Not as easily as Twitter but 100% could cause issues.

                And I think I know which LJ childfree group it was…I was super involved in LJ starting around 2001…up until the Russians acquired it and I left it. Made some amazing friends but boy howdy were there some awful parts.

                1. banoffee pie*

                  maybe it was yahoo chat rooms, I could be misremembering. Yeah a/s/l!! I remember my age was 14 then, yikes. I still had dial-up them too. I’ll never forget the annoying noise of the modem lol

      3. CBB*

        By 2001, GeoCities had been around for years. Everyone had a “home page” and the groundwork was in place for the explosion of blogging that would happen over the next few years. We didn’t call it social media, but it existed.

        1. Amaranth*

          Geocities will forever live in my nightmares for the explosion of animated gifs it spawned. I still run across broken geocities counters on some sites.

          30 years ago it was compuserve for ‘serious’ people and prodigy/aol ‘for fun’. Mainly because CS cost money. :) Not that we didn’t have plenty of gossip channels, showrunners and fan groups around…but then I’d also call my 300bps BBS ‘social media’ of its time.

      4. EPLawyer*

        I started law school 16 years ago and Facebook was a thing. MySpace predated that.

        The problem is — 20 years ago was 2001. NOT 1991 as I so want to believe.

        2. Artemesia*

          I can remember when ‘a quarter of a century’ seemed like a long time and then I realized things that were ‘a quarter of a century ago’ were actually more like half a century ago.

          1. Candi*

            I joined a Yahoo group in 1999! The websites for the fandom in question still used WebRings.

            I remember because that was also the year I got married. That was a disaster.

        4. Blackcat*

          Yep. I definitely had a livejournal and geocities prior to 2001. Myspace was around then. Definitely by 2003.

        1. une autre Cassandra*

          Am I the last person who remembers Bolt? Bolt was probably my personal nadir for social media use, except for some of the shadier LiveJournal-enabled nonsense I got up to from time to time after I was unambiguously Too Old to get away with that anymore. Ah, the Chagrin Years…

          1. banoffee pie*

            I used to love arguing about politics and music for some reason. I could get so wound up about those topics!

          3. Dragon_Dreamer*

            Fun fact: MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, AOL, etc. actually used Internet Relay Chat servers for their chatrooms! All of them were literally fancy single network IRC clients! Source: I worked as an IRC.ICQ server mod for a couple years.

      8. Always Online*

        MSN > 25 years ago
        CompuServe > 30 years ago
        Usenet > 35 years ago
        Dial-up BBS on a telex machine > 40 years ago

      9. ObservantServant*

        Completely unrelated but we had ICQ, AOL digests/Yahoo groups. I still have a couple of friends from the mid to late 90s band forum we were all into. We’ve even met IRL since then!

        1. PolarVortex*

          I’d argue on nails over the plugs, but only because that requires a tetanus shot.

          (Yes I have stepped on nails, plural. And yes it was far enough apart I had to get a tetanus shot each time.)

          1. Keymaster of Gozer (she/her)*

            Tetanus is a soil dwelling bacterium so if you’ve been punctured by anything that’s been in contact with soil (thanks cat for biting me….) you should get the jab.

            Just a general advice to all!

            But yeah, I’ll concede on nails. The tetanus shots really mess me up for days!

            1. Cercis*

              As a gardener, I get a tetanus shot ~7 years, give or take. If I get a wound that would ordinarily require one and it’s been more than 3 years, I get another one. They’re a 10 year shot in theory, but in practice docs will want you to have them more often if you live in an area where it’s endemic. The bonus is that it’s usually a TDaP (but not always), so I get a little more protection against those diseases as well. I insist they be given in my hip or thigh, though, because they will absolutely incapacitate my arm.

              1. COHikerGirl*

                The pertussis one is also in theory 10 years but can, and does, wane earlier in a not insignificant number of people. I somehow contracted whooping cough when I was 20. Never again. (My COVID cough was worse…) Definitely try to get pertussis included always when you re-up the tetanus shot! I wouldn’t wish whooping cough on anyone I like.

            2. Candi*

              I get the tetanus (TDaP) even though I shouldn’t need it, because I’d rather have it, and not need it. Same principle for my covid jabs. Didn’t want ’em, got ’em anyway.

            3. Get your boosters!*

              It’s not just in dirt, it can be pretty much anywhere. That’s why the old chestnut about a rusty nail – the bacteria need an oxygen-poor environment to grow, and the formation of rust eats up the surrounding oxygen to create a perfect breeding ground for e.g. airborne bacteria.

          2. Lab Boss*

            Random digression that I once stepped on a nail while moving salvaged lumber that went all the way through my shoe and out the top- directly between my big and second toes, without scratching me. So I know I must have earned a boon from the universe somewhere along the line.

        2. Worldwalker*

          I’d put ICs in there too. I once stepped on one of those *hard*. (thankfully it was only a 555 timer — that’s an 8-pin package) The only thing worse than plugging a DIP into the bottom of your foot is *un*plugging it. That was far more pain than anything that size has a right to. And I’m fairly sure my cat, who stole it off my workbench and left it in the middle of the floor, was snickering as I hopped around and swore.

        3. Short Librarian*

          To add to the list of non-life threatening, awful things to impale yourself upon: fish hooks. I got one stuck in my thumb (about twenty years ago) while pushing myself to a standing position from the carpeted floor where I had been sitting watching television. Unfortunately, the hook was tangled in the carpet threads and I was alone in the house. Because the barb end of a fish hook means you can’t just slide the hook out, I was stuck to the floor for about half an hour until my mom returned home. I screamed for her help and she got a scissor to cut me free. And the trip to the urgent care needed to remove the hook included a tetanus shot.

          1. Heffalump*

            The prongs on type G (British) plugs are huge compared to American ones, and the plug is weighted so it lands prongs up.

        5. Kit*

          And the most terrifying thing to hear, as a gamer, is “Does anyone know where my metal d4 went?”

      2. Where’s the Orchestra?*

        The ultimate worst to step on is Duplos.
        Duplos are larger Legos for toddlers and their not as coordinated hands and fingers. They are sturdier than Legos as well.

      1. Coder von Frankenstein*

        Some of us play with metal dice (with a tray to roll in so they don’t bang up the table).

        My d4s are *literally* caltrops.

  4. I'm A Little Teapot*

    This isn’t petty stuff. This is serious breaches of confidentiality. Send the screenshots.

    1. StellaBella*

      OP, this was what I was going to say. Screenshot and provide links to all of the terrible stuff, check her media and replies too, and write a letter explaining why this is so egregious. Send it to the head of HR, the CEO, and her current boss. Send it as a hard copy if you like or email. But be careful of retaliation from her if you do so. Even tho you are out, she can make your life hell it sounds like. Good luck.

      1. LKW*

        It would be easy to send without it linking back to the OP, especially if sent in hard copy. If the company HQ is in NYC – use the address of a satellite office as the return address. It doesn’t matter if the address and the post office location don’t match.

        1. Candi*

          Yeah, as long as you don’t pull the scam of switching return and sender addresses (the post office knows about that one, people), the post office doesn’t care if the locations make sense. If only because everyone knows someone who at some point had something they forgot to mail and made a mad dash for the nearest mailbox when they realized, wherever they were.

  5. Midori987*

    Perhaps I’m petty, but I’d honestly be tempted to tweet screenshots of the tweets and tag the company, so they would be forced to address it.

    1. Ashley*

      This can still back fire especially when staying in the industry. It would feel good but the consequences might not be worth it. Plus then you almost become part of sharing confidential information publicly if it is identifiable to managers team.

    2. Me*

      Tempting but no. Remember she’s talking negatively about other people. Retweeting it means you are now spreading that negative talk to a larger audience increasing the risk of embarrassment to those individuals.

      Don’t do it.

    3. Myrin*

      In addition to what others above me already said, I didn’t get the sense that OP actually has a Twitter account herself.

        1. Snoopy Clifton*

          You are in a tough spot but I agree with Alison that sharing what you know with HR is the right way to go. Good luck to you and please send an update.

        2. Betteauroan*

          You should definitely turn this egregious stuff in and let them decide what to do with her. Most likely she will be written up and could even be fired immediately. She should be. Anyone who is a supervisor must be discrete and have a certain level of common sense and self-restraint. This woman is a ticking time bomb. There is nothing that is off-limits to her. She has to be stopped, for the sake of her employees, if not for the best interests of the company.

    4. Lance*

      I personally wouldn’t, because then the OP would be publicly tying it to themselves (rather than privately), which may not end terribly well.

        1. une autre Cassandra*

          But since it’s also relatively easy to fake screen shots, I don’t know how seriously I’d take a bunch of screen shots from an anonymous Twitter account, if I were HR.

    5. Where’s the Orchestra?*

      This I wouldn’t do. Sounds like they are still in the field, just a new company.
      Reputation’s take years to build, but can be destroyed in 30 seconds.

    6. FYI*

      No way. I hope the OP is sending the screenshotted tweets anonymously, i.e., print them out and mail them.
      That’s what I would do, so that all of this drama would stay firmly in my rear-view mirror.

  7. Not Tom, Just Petty*

    This is why AAM is great. A disinterested view is exactly what you need.
    I supported sending the screenshots because SHE TOLD YOU she tweeted something.
    She was bragging for crying out loud.
    You have a lot going for you, obviously. You were able to move on and be even more successful. You are not getting back at the manager who did a lousy job, you are helping those who are stuck there, who don’t have the options you do.

    2. Betteauroan*

      Exactly. Her innocent employees have no idea, yet, that she is betraying them publicly. If this were my boss, I would be devastated and humiliated by her tweets.

    3. Sandangel*

      It continues to stun me that people still don’t get that the Internet is Real Life, and it does not forget nor forgive. There’s no “Just Kidding!” about this sort of thing, that was all you, and Everyone Can See It.

      1. Not Tom, Just Petty*

        And screen anonymity is no different than any secret. If you tell one person your screen name, (much less brag about what you posted) it is not a secret.

    4. Meep*

      I had a high school teacher who didn’t hide (and actively promoted) his NSFW tumblr to his students by showing pictures of his dogs he mixed in with the “twink” content (older gay man). Well, a student who didn’t like him claimed he had made inappropriate sexual advances on the student. He didn’t. He was cleared of that. It was the public Tumblr account that got him. This was just ten years ago, too. Even at 17, I knew that would end badly for him.

  8. Cranky and uncaffeinated*

    I’m team burn it all down and send the screenshots. She lit the fire her own self.

    2. Xenia*

      I would probably go through and cherry-pick the top 10, mostly because I’d be worried that an email with a huge screenshot dump would be flagged as spam and/or worry that if HR only saw the awful but non-illegal ones first they’d think it was only an ex-employee complaining. But I’m also on team send the screenshots and I’d add the Twitter handle so HR could see the full awfulness for themselves

  10. Purely Allegorical*

    If part of what makes you hesitate is that you dont hold great love for the company, keep in mind that you are doing this not for them but for all the other employees whose privacy she is violating.

    I also think there might be some other places you could report this, if she is disclosing people’s personal info (especially if that info pertains to a protected category like race/sex/etc.). Better Business Bureau? EEOC?

    1. chirp_chirp*

      OP here. Thanks for that insight. I do feel for my colleagues, who have expressed to me the ways they feel they have to befriend her to have a better experience at work but who do not know about the privacy violation.

      1. LKW*

        Then you also know that in befriending her, they are potentially unknowingly giving her ammo that she can use against them. If I shared something personal, like an abortion, and found out it was tweeted out to the world…burn. it. all. down.

        If she told you about her tweet, she bragged about other tweets I’m sure. Other people are likely aware of this account. They may easily be able to put two and two together and know who she’s speaking of. This is why the whole personally identifiable information should be managed so carefully and why businesses have such policies in place.

      2. Where’s the Orchestra?*

        By reporting the tweets to the company you are exposing this person for what she is – a lawsuit waiting to happen. You aren’t being petty – you are giving the company information they can use to protect the remaining employees and keep themselves safe and maybe in business.

        I keep saying it, but I feel like it’s true – this person sounds like a time bomb or a walking lawsuit.

    2. Tiffany Aching's imaginary friend*

      The BBB is nothing official. It’s just a networking group with an admission fee. EEOC, on the other hand, that’s something official. I wonder if the Dept of Labor would be interested, also.

      1. Candi*

        (Agreeing) The BBB is a bunch of private local organizations very loosely overseen by a national body. The local chapters have exactly as much authority as they’ve earned and/or been given.

        There’s a possibly fictional tale where a small town’s BBB and Chamber of Commerce overlapped/were the same. (Don’t know how legal that would be, but small towns can be odd.)

        There’s the very real story of the neighboring city to mine where it turned out the local BBB was running a blackmail/bribery scheme. Their predecessors had made that BBB something to fear and respect, and the current personnel were exploiting that for free food, goods, and services. Thirty+ years, two complete turnovers, and they’re still regarded with ambivalence at best, outright mockery at worse.

        I don’t know if the DOL could help, but it sure is worth checking out, considering this woman’s already extensive laundry list.

  11. NerdyKris*

    And something like this can be reported anonymously, since they can look at the Twitter account for themselves. It’s not really something that requires you to put your name to it like “I heard Bob say X on October 11th”.

    1. Monday Monday*

      Yeah…..like create a new, non-identifying email address to send it in.

      Or if you don’t want to be anonymous, you can say, “since I wasn’t given the opportunity for an exit interview, I wanted to make you aware….”

      Yikes. I can’t believe at this point with 1000 followers that no one else turned her in.

      1. Artemesia*

        I’d do it from a library computer and an account that can’t be traced to yourself. Like others I thought ‘of course not’ until we got to her tweeting about someone’s abortion and it was all ‘get it done’ from there. WOW.

        1. anon for this one*

          Yes to all of this – create a ‘burner’ email and send the information from a public computer (or at least use a VPN).

          I used to have a manager who tried to make me and my coworkers (whose roles were not in any way HR-related) stalk our contractors on social media so he could find out if they were ‘behaving appropriately’ while working for us. And if they stopped working for us, he wanted to know if they were ‘breaking privacy rules’… as you can imagine, this was not an effective use of our time. But it definitely encouraged me to keep my own accounts locked tight and never even allude to my job in the vaguest of terms!

          1. NerdyKris*

            Why do you think you’d need a VPN? It’s not the government. They can’t compel the ISP to hand over who was using that IP address at that time. That’s over the top for this.

        2. NerdyKris*

          That’s a little excessive. Don’t use your work computer, sure, but they aren’t tracking down your IP address and getting a subpoena to link it to your address over a simple heads up email. There’s no reason to do it from a library computer instead of your personal computer.

      2. Anna*

        I also feel like surely some of those 1000 followers are competitors who know she may well give them inside scoops, and it’s in their best interest to keep her live

  13. korangeen*

    I’m slightly surprised the advice is to send the screenshots, because sending the screenshots is something I would want to do, and often the thing I want to do is not the right thing to do. But hurray for a situation where the vengeful action coincides with the right-thing-to-do action!

    1. Myrin*

      Ha, I thought the exact same thing!
      I simply love the advice (and often updates!) where I feel vindicated vicariously.

    2. Screenshotter*

      They need to send the screenshots. I was in a harassment situation at work years ago and someone created a Facebook profile to stalk and harass me. I took screenshots and I was glad I did because they kept closing the account and re-opening using variations on their name so the evidence was gone by the time my company started the investigation. They were thrilled I had evidence.
      Same may happen here if someone tips her off in the meantime that maybe she shouldn’t be tweeting those things. Or HR reaches out and she deletes the account.

      1. Attractive Nuisance*

        +1. Different but similarly, I was bullied on Facebook in high school and didn’t know because I didn’t have a Facebook account. I’m really glad someone who saw the page let me know and helped me take action. I disagree with commenters who are saying LW doesn’t have to report this because it’s “public”.

        1. S*

          If either the acquiring company or the acquired company was publicly-traded, this kind of leak is an SEC investigation waiting to happen. Even if she was successfully anonymous on Twitter and no one took advantage of the information, the company might be required to self-report and pay a penalty.

          So yeah, do it. Even your crappy ex-company needs to be aware of the risks it’s running.

      2. Moira Rose*

        Question! In such a situation, how do investigators figure out that the screenshots haven’t been doctored? Can they compel Facebook to verify a screenshot was once posted?

        1. nopetopus*

          Metadata & other traces to see if the screenshot’s been doctored. You can usually tell, and that’s much easier to look into. Facebook’s really, really bad at responding to these kinds of investigations even until it hits the criminal level. Plus the onus isn’t on the person providing the evidence, unless there’s a really credible reason to believe they could have doctored it and had strong motivation to do so.

    4. Not Tom, Just Petty*

      It’s like finding a healthy food that tastes good. Or discovering your medication IMPROVES something as well as clears your sinuses.

  14. Smithy*

    I really like how Allison breaks down the reason for doing this as protecting others who’d have to report into her.

    OP, as you well know – when you report into someone like this, there can be 101 reasons why it just does not benefit you to speak up. The guarantee of HR making moves that will ultimately protect an employee from the vast range of potential retaliation is rarely in stone. Therefore, so many will just try to protect themselves as best they can while in that job.

    The other side of this is that waiting for the media – be it traditional journalists or social media to find this boss’s tweets and therefore make this a headache for the company – is leaving a lot to chance. I’ve known some people who’ve talked publicly about associated workplace issues and abuses…..and the fallout of those engagements leaves a lot to chance. Do the stories/tweets actually ever get attention? Does the nature of the story lead organizational leadership to become defensive vs horrified/self reflective? How well are the details of the story covered? Who actually gets in trouble/harmed vs who gets protected? By sending those screen shots to HR, a very specific person and their very specific behaviors are being targeted. Do it with a clear conscious.

  16. Dust Bunny*

    An acquaintance of mine was making fun of employees at her company on a particular social media platform. But she has the position because the owners are her parents, which makes it feel even worse–she’s an a-hole supervisor who is there because she’s daddy’s girl. Her parents can’t see her account.

    Yeah, I sent them screenshots.

    I don’t know what, if anything, they did abut it but I don’t feel guilty.

    1. Where’s the Orchestra?*

      Agreed – who knows what will happen – but at least they now have the information to make their decisions.

    2. Not Tom, Just Petty*

      Hey, you did them a favor. No matter if they look at it like, someone is targeting our precious baby and she sees it as BETRAYAL! it is something business owners need to know.
      If they didn’t let her go, they probably at least told her to keep her thoughts, such as they are, to herself.

  17. CarCarJabar*

    It would be more fun (and more anonymous) to print multiple copies of her twitter feed and snail-mail them to anyone and everyone who should see them, including former manager. Everyone loves snail mail! It will be the talk of the company for at least 48 hours.

      1. Bilateralrope*

        Making the email too difficult to trace is easy enough. Go to a local library, or anywhere where you can access a webmail from hardware and an internet connection that isn’t yours. If you can’t do that, using your hardware with an OS that boots from a USB stick somewhere with free wifi is probably sufficient. Use a free VPN if you can.

        Using that connection, create a new webmail account. Send the emails from there.

        You don’t need to make yourself completely untraceable. Just too much hassle for them to track you down.

    2. Fried Eggs*

      I’m salivating at the image of OP marking the date on the Tweet about the acquisition with a highlighter before adding it to the envelope with the rest.

  18. ahhh*

    I’m willing to bet that even though old boss and owner have a “good” relationship, owner is not aware of what was posted. While boss may have been venting, that seems like a lot of confidential, need-to-know-basis company information posted. I say yes, send those screen shots. Not for revenge or maliciousness, but because the owner probably thought they hiring a friend (boss) and that friend was hired in a professional manner. This is not professional. I’d say you are in the clear. You found the info on a public form of social media. OP keep us updated after you send the screen shots.

    1. Ask a Manager* Post author

      My bet is that she approaches social media as if it’s sort of her own one-woman show. She’s using whatever’s around her as fodder for entertainment/commentary without considering any of the actual implications of doing that.

      1. Keymaster of Gozer (she/her)*

        Based upon experience with shutting down this kind of thing in my professional life: it’s a lot to do with wanting to be seen as some kind of ‘in the know’ and ‘wise knowledge source’ with a dash of ‘please pity me that I have to deal with these degenerates in my daily life it’s so hard you guys’.

        There’s been tons of threads I’ve shut down on our company forums from people trying to out coworkers on things that frankly are none of their business and most start with ‘did you know that we have to work with gay people/transgender people/people of other religions/people who live together without being married/people who got abortions/etc and we’re not allowed to complain?’

        Gets really disgusting at times.

    3. Girasol*

      Venting. We vent too, it’s just that we tend to do it anonymously and assure that whoever we’re kvetching about can’t be individually identified.

      1. banoffee pie*

        I’m just finding it hard to get my head around it. I wonder has she forgotten she is identifable on Twitter. I try to only say things here that I’d be happy for people who know me in real life to read. But I understand people sometimes need places to vent. I guess if I had an awful, bullying workplace, I might behave differently. In this case, the venter and bullying boss are one and the same person, so it’s hard to have much sympathy.

    4. Always Online*

      In addition to what everyone else has said … it’s amazing how many people don’t know that the ENTIRE WORLD can see what they put on Twitter. They think it’s somehow like Facebook, and only some people will see it.

      1. Amaranth*

        People also overestimate their anonymity. If they don’t use their full name and address they think that is enough ‘plausible deniability’ or stops anyone they know from running across them.

  20. 653-CXK*

    Aaaand this is the reason why I despise Twitter. The site has been overtaken by extremely toxic people who use the platform to bully others.

    Your HR department must see those screenshots today. Your ex-boss tweeted on a public platform about abortions and sexuality, plus raises and other confidential information. In many companies, those actions are multiple breaches of confidentiality, and are grounds for immediate termination.

    2. JustaTech*

      Even if the HR team is terrible and doesn’t care at all about all the people-related stuff, the Legal team will be Not Pleased that the boss tweeted about the acquisition before it happened. That’s the kind of thing that can get the SEC involved (if it’s a publicly traded company).

  21. Rosey*

    I… disagree. This really feels like the Letter writer went out of their way to find this Twitter, and then monitored it for months and now — laid off — wants to hurt this person.

    If this had mattered enough at the time, then that’s when the screenshots should have been sent. The anger at the company is turning into an anger at a specific person and… why help the company that laid you off?

    She shouldn’t have tweeted these things on public account, but… 1000 followers is tiny in Twitterverse — and the letter writer is adding on to the company surveillance of peoples lives outside of work. Just let it go — if it had effected anything it would have already.

    The hurt the letter writer feels is totally justified, but I feel like the action should have happened while at the company. Now they’re going back for one final shot which just is… vindictive.

    1. Smithy*

      I think the OP gives a pretty solid reason why they couldn’t share the screenshots at the time. The first being that initially the company was only 15 people and the manager reported into the owner/no HR. Sharing the screen shots that included discussing direct reports medical care and sexuality essentially sounded like setting herself up to be fired with no reference.

      Now that the OP has a new job and isn’t tied to this job, it’s the first time there’s the opportunity to flag this issue without fear of reprisal. And this is someone still managing other people.

      I will also say, to assume this person is going to be fired and left entirely in the cold is not a given. By the OP telling the company in this way, this woman may be given the opportunity to scrub her twitter and get a slap on the wrist. Ultimately, this may be a way for the company to save face and scold the former manager while still promoting her.

    2. Mental Lentil*

      Yes, part of this is wanting to hurt this person.

      But read her second reason. This person is actively tweeting derogatory things about the people she supervises. She’s placing her new company at the risk of getting sued. It doesn’t matter how many followers she has.

      As for “went out of their way to find this Twitter” — well, that’s a bit much. I mean, unless someone hands you a link to their Twitter account, you have to go out of your way by doing something as simple as a google search.

      if it had effected anything it would have already

      There is no way in the world you can know this for sure.

      LW needs to send those screenshots.

      1. The Original K.*

        Agreed. She’s tweeting what should be confidential medical information (the pregnancy termination). Her employer needs to know.

      2. quill*

        Also if OP hadn’t done a casual look after the manager did the equivalent of “I’m so funny, you should follow me on twitter!” they could easily have found the account on their own if they’re active on twitter in a professional capacity.

    3. MissGirl*

      My instinct is this one but then I remember it isn’t about the company, it’s about the employees whose privacy is being violated in very gross ways. My thought was to let the employees who’ve been outed by her be told and let them bring it up but I don’t know if that will make it worse for them.

      1. Where’s the Orchestra?*

        My only worry about this is the fact that this boss sounds like they are the type to retaliate when their little bubble gets burst. OP said they didn’t feel they could complain about what was going on while they were there – why would any of that have changed just with OP leaving.

      2. Clare*

        If the LW really cared about the employees she would have warned her coworkers years ago so they would have at least known not to share personal things with this manager. LW could have done that even when the company was small with no HR. The “concern” for other employees feels fake and an excuse to justify vindictiveness. Don’t do it! It might feel good in the moment but long term being vindictive never helps

        1. Delphine*

          In a tiny company that’s the kind of thing that could very quickly get back to the manager and backfire stupendously on the LW. Why would she have risked it?

          I’d like to know your reasons for believing this wouldn’t actually have any long-term benefits.

        2. chirp_chirp*

          Hi, Clare. OP here. I do care about them. One coworker was a friend of the manager who the manager hired. Another, I did tell about the Twitter account but did not mention the handle. A third, I did not tell because I felt they would tell the manager I’d found it. To say “if the LW really cared” is an oversimplification of personal dynamics generally, and a gross oversimplification when livelihoods are at stake.

          1. Jennie*

            Thanks OP! Shouldn’t have been on you to stand up for yourself this way but what a clear and articulate way to do it.

    4. Texas*

      Well, the boss told LW what she tweeted; she brought LW into her Twitter sphere and LW accepted that and saw that, among other things, the boss was tweeting about an employee’s abortion while her account has personally identifiable features. It seems like there’s a lack of respect on the part of the manager towards her direct reports and that affects her ability to manage. LW was open about the personal feelings partially pushing their reaction, and that doesn’t negate the serious reasons it’s not okay that the boss is doing this.

        1. ShowTunesOnMyMind*

          OP Something that stands out for me is that on top of all the rest, your boss posted about your relationships and sexuality.
          I’ve been in the position before of being laid off after a company did not appropriately handle or stop someone from sexually harassing me. I reported through the proper channels and it still ended badly for me. So I want to say I understand not reporting it sooner and also the feeling of wondering if I had done enough upon leaving. I think you would feel better looking back on this if you found a way to report it to HR, not only to protect the people at your old company, but to stand up for yourself. I’m so sorry this happened and I hope that your new place is rational, thoughtful, and free of harassment.

          1. chirp_chirp*

            OP here. Thank you. One of the things I’ve worked to get better at lately is standing up for myself. I look back on these situations where I didn’t, and I feel upset & unsettled about it. But I don’t want my actions to simply be motivated by “this will make me feel better about me,” which is why I wrote in.

            1. Amaranth*

              I think its *okay*, though, to be motivated by wanting to feel better about yourself. Your feelings of fairness and self-worth aren’t unimportant. Your concern seems to be that it might be born of vindictiveness, but a touch of that is normal and I appreciate that you’re self-aware and not dressing this up as 100% altruism.

              But just because you didn’t feel safe speaking up then doesn’t mean that you aren’t allowed to speak up now. On the flip side, its not required of you if you think it would negatively impact you professionally. I don’t think you have to go all Mission Impossible to hide your location as long as you aren’t using an IP address that literally spells out your home address (I’ve seen stupid things when working on email logs). Just make a gmail account and keep it to the facts — ‘There are potential liabilities that this person is sharing info about SEC filings and employees’ personal info while showing the company logo.’ (did they actually name the employees? because that is especially horrifying if they were identifiable.) You might copy someone besides HR too…finance VP perhaps? Because its not just a personnel issue and if you reach someone who limits themselves to that interpretation they might not get the greater ramifications.

              1. Where’s the Orchestra?*

                I would go with sending to HR and Legal if legal exists. I’m sure if legal exists they would be “Delighted” to know she is tweeting all this stuff for the world to see.

              2. DJ Abbott*

                Sorry I’m late to this thread. I just want to second there’s nothing wrong with being motivated by feeling better about yourself.
                I have often been motivated by that and I don’t feel bad about it. I have it coming after dealing with an abusive family and the long road to overcoming the damage. It’s part of a process of learning to set boundaries and stand up for myself. I don’t go nuclear or anything like that, usually it’s just stating my thoughts and feelings in a civil way.
                As others have mentioned, you have a lot of other good reasons for saying something besides feeling better about yourself, so it would be a win-win.

            2. Where’s the Orchestra?*

              The problem is this boss is an ongoing problem – she stopped being your problem because you are at a new job. But all the people you worked with are unfortunately still having to deal with her. I really vote for giving the screenshots to the company and let them decide what to do next.

      2. MsSolo (UK)*

        I don’t agree she brought LW into her twittersphere – mentioning you have an account on a social media site isn’t an invitation to become mutuals, especially if you’re citing the source of a joke. I wouldn’t be upset if a colleague found my twitter on that basis, but I would be a little surprised, since it definitely takes a level of effort that doesn’t seem appropriate for a workplace relationship. But LW can’t go back and un-find it, and what she found is definitely worth reporting (even without the ‘my employees are supporting characters in the reality tv show that is my life and therefore I can use anything about their lives to make the internet more interested in mine” stuff, which is deeply egregious, there are multiple things with legal implications here). I think LW explains clearly why it wasn’t feasible while they were still working there, and I think it’s important to be careful in what they say in reporting it – don’t go into how they found it, don’t go into how they feel about it, just be clear which posts clearly show she works for the company and which posts represent potential legal and reputation risks.

        1. Texas*

          If the boss just mentioned that she has a Twitter, I would agree. But she quoted her tweet to the LW (which is also weird, because who’s trying to do in-person engagement with their social media??))

        2. SeluciaMD*

          Twitter has recommended colleagues, co-workers, and other acquaintances to me many, many times so there’s no reason she’d need to disclose how she came across the account – most will assume that she either looked her up to connect (a thing a lot of people do who use social media with any kind of a professional bent) or that she was a recommended connection via the Twitter algorithm. The account is PUBLIC.

          Furthermore, I’m not sure it matters how or why she found it – what this person is doing is egregiously bad. Bad for the people she supervises and bad for the company. I see no down side to the OP letting the company know what their employee is doing and think she’s doing the people who still have to be managed by this very toxic person a huge favor. Even if they know what she’s doing, it’s not unreasonable to fear retaliation and to not feel comfortable speaking out against their manager. Since OP has fully cut ties at this point, she’s the one in a position to be least harmed by speaking out.

          But real talk: I’m not mad that the right thing to do here is also the thing that feels karmically appropriate and might provide some measure of vindication.

    5. Persephone Mongoose*

      Totally agree and I’m surprised at the responses here. The company is much more likely to write this off as some kind of petty revenge from a spurned ex-employee. The time to report this was when the LW was still with the company.

      1. Texas*

        And LW gave reasons why sending the screenshots during their tenure with the company wasn’t feasible. It’s never okay for a manager to post about their employee’s medical information and make comments about an employee’s sexuality on a publicly available platform. If the company decides to ignore the manager’s egregious behavior because it came from a previous employee, that’s on the company.

      2. CBB*

        Even if the company does think the report is motivated by petty revenge, I don’t see why they would ignore the problem once they become aware of it. It would cost them nothing to tell the boss stop tweeting confidential info and delete old tweets.

        1. quill*

          Even if it were revenge… manager tweeted derogatory things about the OP specifically that could affect OP’s professional reputation. That’s not petty.

      3. Bagpuss*

        That’s where the screenshots come in. I think once they are aware of the content of the tweet, the motives of the person how drew their attention to them becomes pretty much irrelevant – they can judge on the actual evidence of what was said and decide what to do with that.

      4. Jay Gobbo*

        Not that I’m an absolute authority on the subject — but I work in healthcare IT and a PHI breach is a PHI breach, regardless of when it happened. My company takes that extremely seriously. You *cannot* just post people’s health information online (re: the terminated pregnancy). Now, the supervisor may not have posted enough identifying information — but what if she *did*? If she named the employee even only by first name, if there was other circumstantial identifying info it could be considered a breach.

        Like I said I don’t know the industry here but *even once* that is unethical and illegal. That the person has been posting personal info many times is unacceptable. If I were her supervisor I would *definitely* want to know.

        1. quill*

          If the tweeter is easily identifiable within the industry based on her selfies and mentioning the workplace, her small team of employees is probably identifiable with some digging / inside industry knowledge.

          She didn’t have to post Jane Roe’s full name (or any part of her name) to make Jane Roe identifiable.

        2. LKW*

          This. Personally identifiable information doesn’t need to be an explicit. If it was a company of 15 people and someone took off to deal with a health issue specific to a particular gender and age group – it would be relatively easy for anyone in that company to determine who it was – who was missing from the office around the time of that issue? That’s enough to be considered a compliance issue.

          The sharing of the acquisition – there are definitely legal issues if the acquiring company is a publicly traded company. If private, and they decide to go public, then they should be aware that they have an employee who is a major legal liability.

        3. Annabelle Lee*

          Her employer may not be a covered entity, a term you should know if you work in healthcare. I work in health insurance so also understand it. The company probably cares more about its private information than the employees medical info.

          1. LKW*

            Sorry – I should have been more clear – I’m not talking about PHI – I’m talking about PII; I expect all companies are generally covered under PII. Addresses, phone numbers, salary and benefit info, etc are all covered under PII. And information about disability, health, etc is covered under PII.

        4. Clare*

          It’s only considered a PHI breach if it’s PHI about a patient treated in the healthcare system, it doesn’t apply to employees.

      5. feral fairy*

        Even if the corporation/HR is completely soulless, the former boss tweeted confidential info about their business (such as the upcoming merger) and has also expressed discriminatory attitudes about people who are in protected classes. She is a walking liability for the company and it could blow up in their face down the road in the form of lawsuits or a PR nightmare if they ignore it, especially if it comes out that they ignored it. The company can think whatever they want about the LW (if LW decides not to do this anonymous) but it would be imprudent of them to do absolutely nothing. I would hope that the company would care on a moral level about how this manager is treating their employees and violating their privacy and that that on its own would be a fireable offense, but even beyond that, there is evidence of all types of impropriety.

        I also just want to add that this “why didn’t you report it at the time” line is used all the time against victims, and it’s pretty ignorant of the power dynamics at play when it comes to things like workplace harassment or in other contexts like reporting sexual abuse. In an ideal world, people would report these kinds of things, but also in an ideal world, people would be able to trust that the report was taken seriously and that they’d be protected from retaliation from their boss and the employer as a whole.

      6. Gumby*

        I don’t care how petty it is (and I don’t think it particularly is). When my company went through an acquisition-like situation, we were not allowed to talk about it with *family members* until it was public, much less put it out on Twitter(!!!). My non-work friends all went, “oh, that is why you have been weird” once that info was share-able which put paid to my delusion that I was handling the stress wonderfully.

    6. olive*

      If the letter-writer could find it, it is not hard to find. And if there was no HR to report it to at the time, it makes total sense why the letter-writer wouldn’t have sent the screenshots while she was employed there.

      It’s not about hurting the old boss or helping the company, it’s about helping this woman’s employees. They may not know personal and confidential information about them is being spread publicly, or may feel like it’s too risky to report it themselves. It’s a huge breach of privacy, and shows a serious lack of good judgment on this boss’s part. I think it’s irresponsible to just let it go until it inevitably does effect someone negatively.

      1. Radical Edward*

        +1,000,000

        As someone who has been in the situation of being (variously) unaware, powerless, and uncertain re: this type of privacy breach and abuse – and then in the position (at subsequent jobs) of being powerful, aware, and very certain: This requires action for the sake of everyone this person manages AND everyone they work with, full stop.

    8. Big 4 Denizen*

      There is no mention of the acquiring company is public. If ExManager tweeted about the acquisition before it was publicly announced, that is material non-public information, and there are a ton of SEC rules against that, such as Reg FD. ExManager and acquiring company could be in a world of hurt if this was sent to the SEC. just saying.

    9. Bagpuss*

      I understand where you are coming from, Rosey, but I agree with Alison here.

      She didn’t feel able to ria se it at the time due to the size of the company and the fear of retaliation,

      This person was /is tweeting things which are breaches of other people’s confidentiality, and if she was tweeting things about an employees termination and about another employees sexuality, that raises huge concerns about whether those attitudes spill over into how she treats people in her job. Since she is doing this from an account which is easily identifiable and identifiably linked to her employer, it could have implications for them as well – if she’s making public comments which are discriminatory, for example.

      I also think you can’t know what it has affected already. For instance, the tweets apparently are critical or discriminatory against a woman who needed to get a termination and against OP because of their sexuality. How confident do you feel that those attitudes don’t also impact how this person manages or managed those individuals, and how they may treat others whose sexuality they disapprove of, for example.

      Equally, you can’t tell how many potential clients or applicants will have seen the tweets, seen the company logo and chosen to go elsewhere.

      To me, this is the classic ‘ensure your own oxygen mask is on before helping others’ type situation. OP’s mask is on now, she has a new job and if safe from retaliation. So now she is in a position to help others by alerting HR to the issue so they can investigate and take appropriate steps.

      1. Sparrow*

        Yes, I agree. In an ideal world, OP would’ve sent the screen shots when she discovered the account, but her reasons for not doing so are compelling. If the boss had abandoned the twitter account over the last couple of years, I think sending the screenshots now would mostly be about revenge and wouldn’t accomplish anything, but she’s *actively* tweeting about her current employees. This isn’t a bad decision she made a few years ago but has since grown from; she’s still making that bad decision and is still causing harm to others.

      2. Rosey*

        I’m not disagreeing that this is totally inappropriate behavior on the part of the boss — it totally is. The thing I’m bothered about is that an ex-employee is now going back to a company that they no longer work for and helping them, when it was the company, not the boss, that hurt the employee by terminating them. It’s a personal thing to do this.

        Absolutely, this manager has crossed lines she shouldn’t have — but I feel like this is all misdirected anger. Putting your oxygen mask on first and then helping other people is fine — but in this case help the other people by alerting them to the fact that the manager is tweeting about them publicly. Ask the people who are directly effected if it’s what they want — otherwise it feels very much like a “I get to stick it to my old boss”.

        1. LKW*

          I think it comes down to whether or not the situation is an immediate threat and who is threatened? If the boss was putting an unsafe product out on the market or flagrantly flouting the law – the threat to all employees including the OP could be enough to warrant immediate action.

          In this case, had the OP taken immediate action, there was a very good chance that the person most at risk from fall out was the OP. You don’t have to set yourself on fire to right a wrong, sometimes you can take some time and do it when the odds are more in your favor.

        2. feral fairy*

          Except that the LW was directly impacted by their former boss’s tweets. The boss tweeted about LW’s sexuality and relationships. By sharing the screenshots, the LW might be “helping the company” but they are also helping the boss’s current and future direct reports avoid having their personal information posted about publicly and mocked. We read letters all of the time on this website about horrendous bosses who use their power over employees to belittle, harass, and sometimes even discriminate against them and the impacts that it has on the employees’ mental and physical health. If someone has concrete evidence that could lead to actual consequences for one of these types of bosses, I don’t actually think it matters if the person turning over the evidence no longer works for the company.

          1. LKW*

            I’m agreeing with you, the OP would have likely been harmed had they reported anytime between finding out and now. With a new job, in a safer environment, they have the ability to take action because it is harder to determine who is reporting, and current employer isn’t toxic. I can’t fault anyone for not putting themselves in harm’s way.

        3. Amaranth*

          The OP though *was* effected and knows first hand what it feels like to be afraid of the consequences of reporting while wanting to keep the job. It seems hypocritical to say ‘oh, well now that I’m safe, you guys do what you want with this.’

        4. Sleet Feet*

          I got a call recently about a job I left 10 years ago. The person in my position was getting harmed the same way I was when I was there, they looked me up based on my complaint and asked of Of be willing to talk to them.

          The thing is sometimes you can lodge your complaint while you are there, and sometimes you are only empowered after you leave. In my case I lodged my complaint a few months after I left. I’m grateful I did because it at least gave the new victim a small ledge to hang on.

          It’s not just about revenge it’s also very much about protecting others.

        5. allathian*

          I see your point, but OTOH the LW is in a better position to intervene, because as an ex-employee they’re no longer at risk of retaliation from the boss, unlike current reports.

          The company needs to put a stop to what the boss is doing, there’s a reason why most employers have some sort of social media policy.

          You don’t have to run everything past the people directly affected to take action in a case as serious as this. It’s in the company’s best interest to know what’s going on.

    10. Omnivalent*

      1000 people is 1000 people more than should have known about an employee’s abortion, or the company’s confidential business activities. And you’re forgetting that Tweets can be saved, screenshotted, and shared, especially since the account was and still is public. Having “only” 1000 followers doesn’t matter to the employee who got doxxed or whose judgmental family saw one of those tweets.

      1. Keymaster of Gozer (she/her)*

        Additionally, one can view a tweet without following the account. So saying something only has X followers doesn’t tell you who actually saw it.

        1. Casper Lives*

          Exactly, OP viewed it without following it. I would too if I knew my boss was potentially posting things about me!

    11. quill*

      It would be one thing if ex-manager was merely saying unkind things like “oh, my employees are so lazy” instead of posting sensitive information about their employees. Frankly OP might have the same quandary if they didn’t go looking: if there’s enough info on the industry in the tweet history and OP is active in industry spaces on Twitter, twitter could have promoted ex-manager’s tweets to OP on it’s own.

      The surveillance aspect also doesn’t seem like a justified concern given that ex-manager also tweeted non-public information about the company. There’s potential legal problems with disclosing an acquisition before it’s announced publically.

  24. CBB*

    I understand the dilemma, but I agree that the overriding concern should be protecting the privacy of the people who continue to be the subject of her gossip.

    With hindsight, I think you would have been justified in reporting her years ago before much of the damage was done.

    1. LC*

      I agree she would have absolutely been justified in reporting this ages ago, but I completely understand why OP didn’t.

      Between the a) small company with b) no HR and c) a manager with a close relationship with the founder, it totally makes sense that OP would be hesistant to take on the possibility of retribution that would very likely happen.

      I’m definitely glad OP wants to send them in now though. If it were just about protecting the company, I could see an argument either way, but none of the people this manager has posted about or will post about deserve this and that makes it incredibly clear cut for me.

      1. Where’s the Orchestra?*

        I totally understand not reporting at first – small company with nowhere to report it safely. New ownership but still reporting to the walking lawsuit (and given what she was posting I bet she’s probably vengeful and would absolutely retaliate).
        There is definitely something to be said for reporting when it’s safe to do so. And send the screenshots in addition to the link to her account. The screenshot shows what she was up to even if she goes thru and sanitizes the account (and sanitizing shows she should have known better than to post this stuff in the first place).

    2. Siege*

      To who? A founder who has a close relationship with the problem manager?

      Not everyone can just light a grenade under their job, no matter the level of injustice they experience.

  25. I Wrote This in the Bathroom*

    OMG she is a PR nightmare waiting to happen! ~500 employees is a small enough company that she may put it in serious danger with a tweet. Send the screenshots.

    1. Where’s the Orchestra?*

      Oh she’s past PR nightmare to a walking lawsuit.

      Bare minimum the employees who had private medical information posted for all to see probably have grounds for a suit, as well as the people who had information about their private life (especially if they were not out at work). But there’s also possible SEC issues in this Twitter feed.

  26. Hiring Mgr*

    I wouldn’t send anything because I’d want to just avoid the drama and move on. If this stuff is so bad and also public, i’m sure OP isn’t the only one to stumble on it!

    1. Jennifer Strange*

      If this stuff is so bad and also public, i’m sure OP isn’t the only one to stumble on it!

      I completely disagree. It’s not like the supervisor in question has a huge following to the point that it would catch the attention of someone who could flag it as inappropriate, and if no one else at work knows what to look for how would they see it? I think OP should definitely pass it along to the company so they’re aware. If they still choose to do nothing that’s on them, but at least they can’t plead ignorance if it comes back to bite them in the ass.

      1. Hiring Mgr*

        So the only way this will be seen is if someone has a personal vendetta against the supervisor and goes digging for dirt..

        1. Tiffany Aching's imaginary friend*

          OP: “I joined a small (~15 employees) company several years ago. While there, my direct supervisor made an offhand remark about some joke she had tweeted. I was able to search for a string of words and find her Twitter account.”

          No indication of vendetta here, just curiosity.

          1. Jennifer Strange*

            Honestly, even if there was a vendetta, the supervisor is 100% in the wrong by sharing the information she shared on there. This isn’t just someone complaining about an employee messing up or something; she blabbed about things that were confidential to both the company and those working below her!

      2. Amaranth*

        I’ve found over the years that people are rarely as anonymous as they believe on the internet. They get lazy and link from one online persona to another, don’t consider they get linked and retweeted by others, or their rants pop up on google searches by key words tied to their company, industry etc.

  27. Lady_Lessa*

    I think that she should send the screen shots, but I like the idea said above about doing it via snail mail. I think that both might be overkill.

    BUT they need, also, to protect themselves from retaliation.

    1. Lance*

      OP is in a new job at a new company; especially if they send it directly to HR at their old company, and don’t publicly get involved, there’s very little risk of any sort of retaliation.

  28. Khatul Madame*

    Send the screenshots to the company’s legal department/general counsel. Sure, send to HR as well – manager tweeting about an employee’s private lives including an abortion (protected by HIPAA) is egregious. But I think the tweets about the impending company acquisition are what will tank that betch in the end.

    1. Annie Moose*

      That’s not how HIPAA works. HIPAA only applies to clients of medical insurance companies and health care providers (and third party companies/contractors hired to process health information). Even if the LW worked for a covered entity, HIPAA still wouldn’t apply because in this context LW is an employee, not a client.

    2. Glomarization, Esq.*

      Not all violations of medical-related privacy are HIPAA problems, and not all perceived violations of medical-related privacy are actual violations of medical-related privacy.

      1. quill*

        In this case though given that it involves a stigmatized and politicized medical procedure… ethically it’s a breach of medical privacy and possibly opening that employee up to harassment (if the poster is identifiable IRL from the twitter account, her employees will be identifiable) online or IRL.

    3. Khatul Madame*

      Point taken, but it only supports my advice not to make HR-related complaints the tip of the OP’s spear.

      1. American Job Venter*

        I agree with you on this. Send this information directly to LEgal _as well as_ HR. And let both know.

    4. LQ*

      Yeah, I actually think that the thing that will be most likely to get the company to act is the acquisition and layoff tweets.

      I think you include the sharing personal details about employees as well. But I think those are easier for a company to overlook. If you really want this to stop, you focus on the things that will hurt the company the most and that’s the completely uncontrolled information about the acquisition and layoff.

      If you want to try to blow it up on social media then you use the private lives information because people will be more outraged. But the company’s general counsel will likely be very unhappy that the acquisition was announced via a rando on twitter.

      If you want the whole organization blown up you post them on a new twitter, attach them to this post because she’s got a following, and tweet at the company to get them to respond.

      1. Where’s the Orchestra?*

        I think you could go chronologically- because I’m betting she started with stuff about employees and then grew to the private company information being posted. But yes – I would keep the number of shots low, but make clear that there is/was a lot more that you can turn over.

  29. No Tribble At All*

    Play stupid (cruel, malicious) games, win stupid prizes. That’s a good thing to interrogate your reasons for wanting to do something, but in this case, it needs to be done. Let her reap her own rewards. I’m glad you’re out of there!!

  30. Elbie*

    Ohhh, I hope that the OP does send the screenshots for all of the reasons that Allison listed and more. And I really hope that we get an update on this one as well.

    And to the OP, congrats on the new job! May it be a wonderful new experience for you in ma y ways!

  31. Typing All The Time*

    Also, OP, send links to them, if they’re still up and her account is still active as well. They can report the account to Twitter as well.

    1. Gerry Keay*

      I don’t know what twitter would do about it; gossip accounts are plentiful and people make stuff up on the internet all the time. Plus, if twitter *did* do anything about it, they’d delete the tweets/lock her account, which would make reporting to the company pretty impossible.

  32. The Prettiest Curse*

    Send the screenshots. And you may want to use “I wanted to alert the company to protect it from any legal action” framing when alerting the company if you don’t anonymise the notification email. Even though you no longer work there, this wording will make it look like you aren’t out for vengeance over your layoff.

    I used this exact framing when making a formal HR complaint about a serial bully at my last job and it worked. Companies that don’t care about bullying and other crappy staff behaviour DO generally care about the prospect of getting sued.

    1. Cranky lady*

      I used similar wording recently with HR when flagging some concerns about how my supervisor was handling some hiring processes.

  34. That One Person*

    Given that a lot of companies have non-disclosure agreements then even tweeting about the merger BEFORE it happens is a big no-no. A lot of the things about her team should also be subject to punishment, but even if they won’t get her for some of the personal stuff (though they should) then at least talking about people being fired publicly should still also further ding her. I’m a bit hazy on the rules, but generally you’re not supposed to shout from the rooftops about these things and using social media is akin to that as being fired is both work information AND a violation of the person’s privacy.

  35. No, no, it's not me*

    Curious how far “send the screenshots” goes (and I totally agree in sending these!).

    I am FB friends with a former employee who is HR (recruiting) for a fairly large company in our industry. Her FB profile is full of support for the Jan 6th rioters, anti-vaccine info, and discusses how she will get out of her companies vaccine mandate that is coming up. I completely disagree with her political statements and vaccine stance, but not sure that is enough to “report” someone to their work when it impacts their livelihood. Her talk of faking a vaccine card does though.

    1. MI Dawn*

      Antivaccine stances and faking a vaccine card – for someone in HR to post publicly would be a huge thing in my book. However, I work in healthcare. I know I have (and had, in the past) coworkers who spout any-vaccine stuff. If they posted it in a public profile, and have our company listed as their employer, you can bet I would notify HR and let them review. If it’s a private profile, and she doesn’t have her employer listed, it’s a bit murkier.

      It’s even worse that your friend is IN HR…they should be more aware than most that they (fairly or not!) represent the company on social media.

    2. StellaBella*

      wow. I would def report that fake vaccine card stuff too. yikes. maybe also check she was not one of the people in the Jan 6 events? yikes wow. HR rep too, wow.

    4. American Job Venter*

      Planning to fake the vaccine card is sufficient, but also — I think, for instance, that the company might want to know this information about the political views of someone with potential to control the demographics they hire from.

      Also, the company has a lot of potential actions, including but not only firing.

      1. Candi*

        For instance, does she ask questions about the vaccine stance in the interview, and disqualify people who are for it, or like me, who got it even though I didn’t want it (greater good and all that)?

        Asking questions beyond “are you poked?” would be completely irrelevant to whether to hire them.

  36. Sola Lingua Bona Lingua Mortua Est*

    If she still manages people or will manage people in the future (and it sounds like both are the case), this isn’t just an act of vengeance and it’s not about teaching her a lesson. It’s about taking action on behalf of the people she still has power over.

    If the company is publicly traded, you’re also doing a favor for anyone who holds company stock in their 401(k), IRA, etc.

  37. Sunflower*

    Not only is she posting employee’s private business but she’s also spilling company information before it became public. Like the buyout. Even if the company doesn’t care about it’s employees, you bet they’ll care about her posting company secrets.

    Send the screenshots. What happens next is for them to decide.

    1. Carol*

      That was the most shocking bit to me–not that the other examples weren’t appalling, but there are strangely people in management who see interpersonal gossip like that as acceptable. But posting about acquisitions, etc. is very clearly legally actionable as well and pretty surprising someone would do that without realizing the risk.

    1. Candi*

      Hopefully a Friday Good News update.

      OP probably won’t know the details, but they’ll likely hear if SpillMouth is axed.

  39. Red*

    What a terrible person. There’s work gossip and then there’s things that should never ever be shared. She’s taken some very personal things and treated them like water cooler talk.

    At my job a younger person was complaining/gossiping about one of our coworkers who had to go on sudden maternity leave because she hadn’t told anyone (save management) that she was pregnant (and had also waited to tell management until later into the pregnancy) until she was already on the leave. We quickly shut that down and explained to her how with pregnancy that that is never gossip material and of course now that we knew she was having a difficult pregnancy of course she wouldn’t share that because having to publicly go through everything if something went wrong would be devastating.

    The idea that a manager would be so cavalier with such personal info is terrible. What if the woman in the subject of the tweet had a judgmental family? What if the termination wasn’t by choice, but medical necessity?

    Send the screengrabs. This woman dug her own hole.

    1. Candi*

      “pregnancy that that is never gossip material ”

      THANK YOU! Too many stories all over the place about people butting their noses into other people’s parasite growing and then yakking about it. Ask once, politely, and then back off, and don’t talk about it.

  40. PT*

    Put yourself in the shoes of the coworker who had the abortion. If you were in their shoes- a boss tweeted about their abortion behind their back and someone knew about it but wasn’t sure what to do- what would you want YOU to do?

    You’d want you to report it, right?

  41. Jessica Fletcher*

    Before sending, make sure your screenshots include the date and timestamp, and ideally the individual tweet URL. Once she’s approached by HR, she’ll start deleting or will go private. Having as much detail as possible is key. HR may not think to save their own versions before discussing it with her or with someone who will tip her off. If you can get the URL, the tweet may still be accessible via the Wayback Machine.

    1. chirp_chirp*

      Yes, I’ve done keyword searches for some past tweets I’ve grabbed, and a few of them are gone now already.

      1. Asha*

        For the others, add them to the Wayback Machine yourself! Enter the URL into the “Save Page Now” field and then follow the prompts. I’ll put links in my reply.

        You probably only want to give them screenshots of tweets that still exist and/or ideally those that you’ve added to the Wayback Machine, so that they can look them up themselves. It’s a lot of work, but can protect you from a lot of accusations of false reporting.

        Good luck chirp_chirp! I’m with you whether or not you decide you can handle this right now.

      2. Moira Rose*

        …Huh. I wonder if this stuff now being essentially unverifiable will stop Legal/HR from doing anything.

  42. Goldenrod*

    I’m sooooooooooooo glad Alison said “send the screenshots.” I honestly had no idea what her advice would be this time. But I am SO HERE for sending the screenshots!!!

  43. Sparkles McFadden*

    Send the screenshots. All of your reasons for not doing so sooner are valid and sensible. Your concerns regarding your own motivations are to your credit, but please send the screenshots.

    You are not doing anything wrong at all. You didn’t spy on this person, or get files off of her computer, or secretly record conversations. You took screen shots of her public account, something available to anyone who cared to look. You are saying “I am concerned about what this person is broadcasting publicly.” If she does get fired (let’s hope that’s what happens), you are not responsible. Her own words are responsible. She did it to herself.

    One last point: It is highly likely that many people want this person to go but they do not have anything specific enough or concrete enough. No one gets fired over just one thing. You are probably giving management the last straw.

  44. quill*

    1) What the entire fudge
    2) Disclosing employees’ medical history and sexuality in ways that open them up to online harassment is double what the entire fudge
    3) The company may only take action on the confidential business aspect but even if she hadn’t been tweeting about that, the violations of her employees’ privacy alone should have been actionable
    4) What the fudge.

  45. Jack Straw*

    LW, I have two requests:
    1. Send the screenshots to more than one person. It doesn’t matter if the email goes to HR, the new org’s founder/president/VP/CEO/etc, her direct supervisor, etc. —just make sure it goes to at least three people so that no one can ignore it/sweep it under the rug.
    2. Give us an update on the fallout after you send them, please! :)

    1. StellaBella*

      agree, said above similar but also noted someone else said to send to the legal department too. hard copies, and with links, timestamps etc. also check her media, RTs, likes, and who else is liking things that are about the merger, etc.

  46. Becca*

    I think my spite would lean toward not sending them and letting the company deal with whatever might eventually happen, since the company itself doesn’t sound great either. But concern for those she’s still hurting would win out over that.

    1. Becca*

      You might let them (any employees/former employees you’re in contact with) know as well. Whether or not the company chooses to act, they might want to take their own actions based on the information.

  47. JBI*

    I’m reminded of the tagline of Bloodfist IV: Die trying.
    “He wants justice.
    He’ll settle for revenge.”

  48. Gerry Keay*

    Screenshots are really easy to fake — I’d recommend also including the post links themselves or at least a timestamp, to add credibility.

  50. No bees please*

    Holy shit! In our yearly corporate compliance meetings, my company always warns about posing non-public information on our social media accounts and I always think, “who would be stupid enough to do that?!” I guess I have my answer.

    1. irene adler*

      Yeah, that’s my sentiments as well. Violating confidences never turns out well.

      One time I interviewed at a small company where the CEO proceeded to inform me about the sale of the company where I was currently employed. She included details-details I knew to be true. I also knew for a fact that this sale was to be kept confidential until a certain date (How did I know these things? The signed contracts were scanned on the company copy machine. I found these.).

      Later, I learned our VP had been consulting for the company I interviewed at. Clearly he spilled the details, never thinking they would be shared with his own employee (me).

  51. Lab Boss*

    OP, you seem to be willing to self-reflect on this, so think of it this way- if you had zero personal anger towards this person or towards the company, and just somehow became aware of what they were tweeting about, would you feel that you should try to bring it to the company’s attention to protect current and future employees? Or just let it go?

    If you would still bring it up, that supports the idea that it’s the right thing to do and any personal satisfaction is incidental. If you wouldn’t do it without the personal anger, then maybe you’re doing it primarily for revenge and it’s less of a good idea.

    1. Ori*

      What? You know, Bad Art Friend springs to mind here. Even if you think Dorlund was a raging narcissist, in the end, some guy got a new kidney. In this case, even if OP’s motivations are 1000% malicious and vengeful, I want her to speak up. Not least because it might be my abortion, sexuality, or layoff that Bad Manager tweets about next time.

      1. allathian*

        Yeah, this. I don’t care why LW reports, it just needs to be done. Any righteous anger is secondary.

  52. JD*

    I agree with sending the screen shots, because she’s a bad person. But the fact that she is single with no dependents really shouldn’t be a deciding factor.

  53. AKchic*

    Is the tweeting manager a PR nightmare and employee abuser if nobody realizes she’s a PR nightmare and employee abuser?

    Yes. A thousand times yes. She’s still spilling company secrets to the public, even if the majority of the public isn’t following her. She’s still telling the public private/confidential employee information, making fun of her employees publicly, even if the majority of the public isn’t following her.
    Just because the company and her employees are unaware of her actions doesn’t make her actions in any way “right” or “okay”. They just make them “unknown by the victims at this time”. They can still be legally actionable once the actions come to light. She is still responsible for her poor judgement, regardless of the fact that (nearly) everyone she gossiped about was unaware of her gossiping. If anyone chose to trade stock based on her gossiping about her company information, it could potentially cause her problems. She needs to be stopped.

  54. nutella fitzgerald*

    Depending on how many problematic tweets there are, it might be more effective to use one of the services that caches the tweet page as it appeared at a particular time. Screenshots could be ignored as possibly faked/edited if the recipient doesn’t take the extra step to independently verify them.

  55. Another Day, Another Dollar*

    OP, My only suggestion here is to put aside your justifiable anger and outrage and think through what doing this could mean for you. Since you have been laid off, you will probably not be seen as impartial when you report the problem. The pile of screenshots shows you’ve known about the problem for awhile without reporting it, and while your motives for not reporting until now make sense imo, others might see it differently. There is also a possibility that the company will not take any action against the manager or just give them a warning about social media use— stranger things have happened, and the manager will be on the inside, spinning her own version of events. Reporting sounds like the right thing to do ethically but just to be aware it may not play out as you hope and there could be collateral damage to your own reputation in ways you might not expect.

    1. chirp_chirp*

      OP. I’ve moved into a different industry entirely and I am not located near the parent company’s office but I appreciate the advice. I know it could be written off as a former employee scorned, which may also be part of my hesitation.

      1. Sea Anemone*

        You could send the screen shots in from an anonymous email account using a public library. Yes, it is still technically possible to trace back to you, but just difficult enough to do so that they probably won’t.

        Or, you could talk to an attorney about whether they would be able and willing to send the screen shots in on your behalf without naming you.

      2. Anissa*

        If you need the courage, read some of the threads on R/prorevenge. I find them so uplifting. The one with manager, his mistress, golf, and luxury Swiss watches is a new fav.

      3. Grayling38*

        I agree that you may be seen as a disgruntled ex employee (which I totally disagree with by the way) but speaking as a Risk Manager who was focused on HR for many years, your motivations wouldn’t make a difference. The reasons for you sharing the information are irrelevant. Given it is verifiable evidence, it would have to be acted upon. There are so many breaches related confidentiality, privacy, legality, policy that it would be a dereliction of duty not to act upon it. And, speaking as someone who used to receive this kind of thing (nothing ever this bad though!) I would be extremely grateful to the person who sent it, because as someone else said above, it’s a PR/Legal/HR/Reputational disaster waiting to happen. I’m getting palpitations just thinking about it.

    2. Ori*

      Or, a sensible person might recognise that an employee may not feel safe reporting this information about an obviously misogynistic and homophobic manager whilst under their power. I am not sure why you are acting as though substantiated and documented allegations would be seen as malicious. This strikes me as a little “Why didn’t you speak up at the time” as levelled against Weinstein’s victims.

      1. Sea Anemone*

        Except that chirp_chirp is not a victim here, and they have and always had the option of reporting anonymously. So, not at all like Weinstein’s victims or any victims of sexual assault.

        1. roses (i supposes)*

          That’s not entirely true – OP is not a victim of assault, but the manager isn’t being accused of assault. She’s being accused of sharing private employee (and company) info. And one of the items of private information she shared was about OP. To the extent that this manager has any “victims”, OP is certainly one of it.

          1. Ori*

            Yes. This manager outed OP against her will. That is something (sadly) that can still ruin / materially affect your life, even in 2021.

        2. Ori*

          Victims of sexual assault always, technically, have the option of reporting. They often do not because the perpetrators have more power than them. That is the dynamic I was talking about.

        3. Eh*

          Read it again. She put information about OP’s sexuality on there. There are different types of harm.

  56. Hippo-nony-potomus*

    The issue about tweeting about an employee’s abortion/miscarriage are not somehow worse than tweeting about an acquisition before it happens. The liability for that is catastrophic.

    Consider sending the screenshots to financial regulators.

    1. Gerry Keay*

      Call me a commie, but I’d actually argue that a person’s right to privacy and respect are more important than corporate compliance.

      1. New Jack Karyn*

        Okay–you’re a commie!
        But seriously, folks: I think Hippo meant that tweeting about the acquisition may be more important to the employer than tweeting about the abortion/miscarriage. On an ethical level, I’m with you.

      1. nonegiven*

        >Tweeting about an employee’s abortion / sexuality is morally worse, at least.

        Probably not actually illegal. Tweeting about the company’s acquisition, beforehand, is.

        1. Ori*

          Hmmmm. Disclosing private information about an employee should be. Could certainly be grounds for a civil suit.

    3. El l*

      Yeah, if they got bought by a publicly-traded company, this would be a major insider-information breach.

      To those who say, “Is this worse than outing people?”, I say, “That’s how they got Al Capone. Get them for the (verifiable) money crimes.”

      While I feel conflicted about OP’s motives, there is some justice in that they can’t hurt her anymore…while they could exact retribution on one of her former colleagues.

  57. Ori*

    “the imminent firing of a colleague a day before it happened… someone needing time off to terminate a pregnancy, and a few things about my relationship and sexuality…”

    TF. No. No. No. I have a really strong line with social media when it comes to personal and professional. I usually err on the side that people are entitled to their opinion, so long as it doesn’t involve hate speech, other people’s personal details, or bringing the company into disrepute. This isn’t even remotely ambiguous. She has leaked confidential information, mocked employees, and while these laws may not apply in the USA, it sounds like she has discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation.

  58. Ori*

    The more I think about this, the more dangerous this feels. My family are Catholic / Methodist. I live four hours away from them and we operate on a don’t ask / don’t tell basis. (I’m sure Dan Savage would say that’s cowardly, but he’s a wealthy, well connected white male). I also (by accident) live in a relatively conservative area. If this manager somehow got ahold of my sexuality, reproductive history and work history, and tweeted about it, she would *ruin my life*. In ways that could not be repaired. Nevermind work consequences, and a very justified firing, she could be (at least) sued for this. And should be.

  59. Neighborhood Friendly QC Lab Tech - Now Supervisor*

    OP – Remember that this stuff is sometimes in the internet archives if its already been deleted. You can use the way back machine in order to try to gram some of the stuff that was there the last time you saw it if you can approximate the dates. its at (web(dot)archive(dot)org. you may need to put her direct link into her twitter into the wayback machine site as opposed to just the main twitter page.

    showing archives of stuff deleted may help your case.

    And I agree with the above. Send it to HR, but then also to a few other folks. Legal if you know their email, maybe IT as they can see if she has been posting from her work computer, CEO, etc.

    1. Amaranth*

      I don’t think I’d recommend sending it to IT, because then it seems without focus, like OP is trying to just find *anyone* to investigate this manager. The SEC info requires finance/legal and the personnel info HR at least.

  60. Sleet Feet*

    Wow. I am normally team MYOB and Employers try to control social media too much, but you have all the context here. It’s objectively horrible behavior and has been ongoing. Please send it.

    Also regarding the “terminate a pregnancy” one unfortunately miscarriages are medically categorized as an abortion/pregnancy termination so depending on how she got the information she may be flat wrong that it was an abortion. She may be twisting the knife about a pregnancy loss.

  61. Managing to Get By*

    Send the screen shots, and discuss the screen shots about your sexuality and your relationship with an attorney.

  62. CW*

    I agree with Allison. It’s bad enough to post this on LinkedIn, but she is doing it on Twitter. And a public one at that! Another point of view, personal and professional life should not mix. I would never post anything to Facebook about anyone or anything about my job, good or bad. Your boss is completely out of line. And you said some of what she is doing is illegal. She should be in big trouble if this is the case.

    Send the screenshots right away.

  63. Lizy*

    I assume we’re all Team SendTheScreenshots because what the actual f and this is so far beyond your standard “my coworker sucks” tweet. But … should OP do it anonymously? And if so, why? Curious what Alison’s thoughts are, especially since she’s typically Team NoAnon on anon-notes.

    (I honestly thought she’d say “don’t send” but… yeah this is redonkulously redonkulous and needs to be reported.)

    1. MCMonkeyBean*

      I think anonymous notes are *generally* not a good idea because they often lack credibility and can create suspicion if the person who receives the note is left wondering who left it. Because the tweets are publicly available and clear written evidence of the bad behavior those things don’t really come into play. This veers more into “whistleblower” territory I think, which is something where anonymity is common and often necessary.

  64. staceyizme*

    Maybe this is less “send it to the company” and more “send it to media”. It’s somewhat unlikely that absolutely nobody else with an interest in curbing this type of twisted-tweetiness knows. So- share that cache of screen shots. (Anonymously, if possible.)

  65. anonymous73*

    Unpopular opinion…I disagree with Alison’s advice. I agree that this person is awful and deserves for her social media activity to be brought to light, and I also understand why the LW was hesitant to report them while they still worked there, BUT LW no longer works there or has any ties to the company and this just seems like an act of revenge.

    1. Delphine*

      Okay, let’s say this is purely an act of revenge. Does it matter? LW’s intentions don’t change the nature of the manager’s behavior or the harm she’s doing to her employees/company.

    2. MCMonkeyBean*

      I think generally reporting a feed just for revenge is often not a great idea.

      But while sending this would probably feel good for the OP, it also I think at this point is beyond necessary whistleblowing. It sounds like it actually went well beyond that point a very long time ago. Even without the more personal items, tweeting about an acquisition before that is public information is a HUGE issue for any company and they absolutely need to know that she has a history of doing that ASAP!!!

    3. Eh*

      If you agree that it should be brought to light, how do you expect that to happen without OP doing so?

  66. MCMonkeyBean*

    You had me at “It’s how I learned about our company being acquired by a larger (~500 employees) one before the news was public”

    I think 90% of the time if a question starts with “should I anonymously send…” the answer is no. But oh my goodness here it is such a yes!

  67. Pam Poovey*

    I’m usually for letting people vent on social media, but this falls into one of the categories where it crosses the line into inappropriate. She’s gone into being actively harmful.

  68. Dragon_Toad*

    Man, I don’t think I’ve seen such a potential HR panic inducer since the woman who got a formal complain about how her breasts looked following a masectomy.

    Fingers crossed we get an update!

Comments are closed.