Is the unethical or just plain illegal in the workplace?

Wow! Sounds like you have been living in a world of anxiety and drama for awhile now--on top of that coming back from illness and trying to get back and on top of the "paperwork mountain" that probably awaited you.

With that said though, it wasn't illegal for your supervisor to talk about you. It was unethical only because they disclosed it to another co-worker who was not your supervisor. Unfortunately, though, it was done in a manner that was meant to be confidential between your boss and your friend. That kind of stuff happens all the time. It's gossip and even supervisors will do it.

I agree that you should stand up for yourself about the probation reasons, however, also bring in written evidence of what you are going to do to get caught up--like a game plan. If you ever have to involve your boss' bosses, they won't care about HOW you got behind instead of how long it took you to get caught up and how well of a job you did in catching up.

Concerning your friend who is now angry with you. If you two go way back, I think a good heart to heart would be warranted. To log into your friend's e-mail shows that you were willing to act on your fears and frustrations without thinking about the other potential negative consequences. If your friend knows you well enough, she may be ticked, but might understand. If she doesn't understand and files a complaint you can lose your job immediately. Even pulling someone else's paper mail out of their box and looking at it without permission is called mail tampering and there are laws about it.

Then you might also think about what your friend is feeling. To be the person to be chosen by your boss to be given "between you and me info" (even if it is gossip and untrue) comes with a very powerful feeling of success. If the boss finds out that the info wasn't kept between her and the boss, then your friend is vulnerable and could be targeted. Fear will make people lash out and do stupid things.

So, if this is a job and a friendship you want to keep, then you may need to decide what is more important to you and carefully proceed. In the end, you may lose the job but you have a chance to salvage a friendship. You'll have to decide if that would be ok.

You cannot use the information you retrieved for your benefit. I would personally not mention any of the information you read in those messages. The fact that you "acquired" her password and logged onto her e-mail account is not only illegal, but is probably a violation of your company's policy, and would be enough to get you fired regardless of the other things involved. Yes, the fact that your boss told her those things is unethical, but not illegal. He probably has a crush on her and thinks that she has more than a friendly interest in you so he is trying to get you out of the picture. I just went through the same thing at my former job, and believe me, it is not an easy thing to go through. I ended up having to resign from the job of my dreams in order to remove the stress from my life that the situation was creating. Good news is, I'm am still with the girl, and couldn't be more happy. Good luck in whichever way you decide to approach this situation. I'm sorry that my response didn't help much, but hopefully I at least gave you at least some good advice.

First, it is illegal for you to read other people's mail, even emails. Second, you should get a doctor's excuse for why you missed work. Third, if you have a problem with your supervisor, you should go to his boss and explain the circumstances to find out if anything can be done. That is called the "Chain of Command". If you can not do this, then you need to go to the Human Resource department and talk to them.

Have you spoken to your friend about this or did you just read her emails? If she hasn't spoken to you about this, then you need to ask her why she is mad at you. Act as if you didn't read the emails and see what she says. If she says what the email says, then you can go talk to Human Resources and tell them your boss is committing Slander and you want it stopped.

If that doesn't work, then go to a legal aid company and see what can be done legally.

Most companies have phone logs and can see how many call are made by each employee, how long they were on the phone and who they called. If you friend was calling you excessively and she had no business reason to speak with you than it was proper for the supervisor to put her on notice of her activity. Her work may not have suffered at that point, but yours may have. If you are put on probation, you are usually able to write a rebuttal to the claim. Make sure you bring proof (time cards) that show the reason you are behind is due to illness. You had no right to hack into your friends email account, and for all you know she may be on probation at this point too. Her job at this point may be on the line and she has chosen to stop communication to save herself.

You're screwed, go get the classifieds and learn to keep your nose out of other people's email. It was surely a violation of company policy for you to be snooping into a co-worker's email and they would be within their rights to fire you immediately. If you are getting the vibe they are going to let you go, start looking for another job.

And, honestly, how old are you? This sounds like stuff a teenager would do, no offense. I don't know if this is your first job in the corporate world, but you've got a lot to learn if this is how you react to situations.

I really don't fully understand the situation but you are at fault here. You just fed the fire. You shouldn't have opened her email as that is already an invasion of privacy and even if you are desperate, only law enforcement that has a warrant could search something private like that.

Anyway, you just gave your supervisor a reason to fire you.

It's not illegal, but it is unethical. Supervisors should not be discussing one employee's status with another non-supervising employee.

It is also unethical to read your coworker's e-mail, and in my company, would be grounds for immediate termination.