If you were the boss, how would you handle this situation?

You are the boss. The following scenario takes place. How would you react?

Your Office Manager has access to the passwords of everyone in the office, including yours. You have discovered that she has been signing into other employees email accounts and reading their emails. She has done this without cause and without your knowledge or permission. You have no policy in place which states that employees have no expectation of privacy or warns that their emails may be read – because, although you are within your rights to do so, it has been your decision not to.

This situation has now come to light because, while reading Employee A’s emails the Office Manager discovered that, in a email between Employee A and Employee B, Employee B made an unflattering remark about you. The Office Manager has brought you this email, presumably for you to act upon. In every respect, Employee B has been a model employee and the email, while somewhat disrespectful, is fairly innocuous and appears to be merely venting. The Office Manager is a difficult employee who frequently clashes with others, but has been with the company for a long time and has personal problems which affect her work. She has shown animosity toward Employee B in the past, which you feel is based on professional jealousy.

How would you handle the situation with regard to each employee? Which employee’s behavior do you feel is worse?