Here is a question for you. How about this scenario. A COO of a small (10 person company) who also manages the server (supposingly to ward off spam, viruses and crashes) has been reading personal emails of the CEO, officer manager, human resource manager (you get the point) and has SHARED information from said emails with unsuspecting employees. So bad is it, that COO is up at 3-4am reading personal emails and disaseembling psychologically because of all the stuff he is reading. In addition, because the company is so small, there has never been a "policy" distributed prior to internet/email use which clearly states that personal emails can be read. Nobody signed anything. COO has been questioned about this, denies doing it yet has commenced asking questions about being "sued". Where are the boundaries here? If COO knows that an email from Mrs. CEO is from Mrs. CEO to Mr. CEO (as it has been for 4 years), then what would be the reason to read the email other than to satiate a very obvious addicition to invasion of privacy. COO is very unhappy with life and generally bored; lives vicariously through lives of employees. Has now become a HUGE liability in company - no trust left. In Canada...what are the legal rights of employees and does the CEO have grounds for dismissal because of the COO relaying private information obtained by the reading of emails to other employees? Does CEO need backing from employees who have been privy to such information? Please advise...it's getting nasty around the office.

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