Seems to me that this is the exact type of behavior the "Speed of Trust" training was designed for. Your manager is immature and inept.
If you were to email her boss, would your name be kept out of it? Otherwise, you'll be pinning a bulls eye to your chest.

Whatever you decide to do, be sure to document, document & document!

It sounds like you were not the only one who received the email. Is this YOUR JOB to play informer? I hear you started from a place of dislike and this fopaux tripped into your lap when you were hoping/looking for a reason to pounce on your boss. For your future happiness it might serve you better to ask for a meeting and have a heart to heart with your boss about your needs and where you feel things could be improved in your working relationship.

I work for a public company. All of our emails are subject to monitoring. You never know when emails like the one your boss are sent as a test. The appropriate action in my company would be to respond (not reply all) stating that I found the email in poor taste and in conflict to company policy of respect and diversity. Simple, straightforward, end of story.

First of all, since it was sent far and wide, I don't think you need to call her on it as a moral matter.

Second of all, your primary motives are not moral. They are to discredit her or punish her. That probably will not end well.

Her actions speak for themselves (all of them, not just this). If someone senior is paying attention and cares, she will be gone and/or demoted. If not, you are unlikely to topple her (especially, I would simply guess, in govt.). You can practice acceptance or you can leave, IMHO. Those are the hard facts.

So sorry you have an unprofessional boss.

I absolutely would not get involved. Just roll your eyes (to yourself) and let it go. Don't stoop to her level.

I spent 33 years working in government. I absolutely would not. Had his name been the reason he wasn't hired, I would, but this hahaletmesharethiswithyou tastelessness is not so egregious to risk my own career.

Personally I would not call someone on behaviour privately who is in a position of power over me and has already proven herself irrationally punitive. Based on prior behaviour you can't expect that person to respond like an adult.

I've been up against this boss many times, she's tried to undermine me before and I'm a formidable opponent. I really hate her game playing.

I don't mean to do this as a way to get her fired or get back at her-very, very fortunately she's retiring at the end of December, so I doubt very much they would do anything about her. My motive would be to say 'hey, this whole Speed of Trust thing-it's being treated as a joke by your managers!' She's done so many things totally against it, I've even called her out in HR meetings on it and she spins it her way, as usual. She is a complete narcissist.

I suppose I will just let it go into the 'file' of her missteps. I learned long ago to document, document, document every thing she says or does. So far I haven't had to use it for my defense, but I know that she'd love for me to be gone. She's lightened up a bit since she is so close to being retired. She's actually said, in front of HR, things about me being too old to do my job. When she did that I just about fell off my chair. I ended up taking a few months off work for medical leave after that.

I'm so close to retirement myself that I'm just going to stick it out. My job field is very narrow and I'm at the top of my salary range in a specialty field so other jobs with similar pay are virtually non-existent.

Thank you for letting me vent. I suppose I still hold an idealized view of what is right-I try to remain as professional as possible in my job. 25 years of it and I've got a folder full of commendations, even from the Governor himself! So I'll just keep quiet on it and let it go. Who knows, maybe someone else reported it? You have given me some good advice to think on. Thank you.

I think you are making the right decision. You could always show her email to upper management after she retires if you want to show them that the training is not taken seriously.

I think you are making the best decision you can. DH works in government. It seems that only extremely egregious errors result in any type of action. Once someone gets through their probation period, they are pretty much set. Granted, even in the private sector, there seem to be many things surprisingly overlooked, depending on the work culture of the company.

She's retiring in a few months....all the more reason to keep mum. Additionally, management usually sticks together and you'll end up the "villain."

Neetsie, in this instance, I think keeping mum is the way to go. The fact that she's retiring at the end of December should be cause for celebration. The sands of time are running out for her.

IMO, you have definitely made the right decision in this matter, neetsiepie. If both of you are retiring in a few months, showing the e-mail to higher management would elicit no action. Also, one thing I learned, is you never know what the personal relationships of higher-ups are. For example, we had an assistant director who was promoted to another facility as director in another region. One employee in one of our smaller facilities caused some major upheavals in an organization by having a fling with a married supervisor. They were both disciplined for their behavior. However, unbeknownst to anyone, the former assistant director and this employee formed a very close attachment. They ultimately married. The trouble for the manager who disciplined one employee started when the former assistant director was now promoted to director of the old facility where previously an assistant director. The "new director" started taking vindictive actions against the manager, undermining his authority, and many other actions. This drove the manager to an early retirement that the manager did not want, but the vindictiveness was absolutely intolerable. So just saying, always think things through thoroughly before causing any kind of trouble for anyone - PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR GOOD NAME AND GOOD REPUTATION.

Hopefully someone else who received the email will do the right thing.

If I had a dollar for every government manager who actually walked the talk, I could have retired a millionaire a long time ago. After putting in so many years as a Federal Government employee, I saw so many who said and did reprehensible things they were not supposed to do, from hiring and promoting practices, to equal employment opportunities (huge one), harassment, to basic protection of human rights in a few occasions.

Glad your manager is retiring. And I hope you get a better one before you retire so you can have a few months of seeing how it can be good. Emails have a habit of getting to others not intended as recipients, so maybe one of her supervisors will eventually see or hear of it anyway. Maybe it could even get to the person mentioned in the email which would be awful. Will they take action? I wager not if she is retiring soon. Best of luck to you!

"Hopefully someone else who received the email will do the right thing."

Hm. I think it depends on your motivation, whether it's for revenge (she's leaving, so you can be the better person), point out the uselessness of the sensitivity training (use a different approach), or to do the right thing. Personally, I'd say something when others are around, but I guess I'm still idealistic.

If I was sure I could get away with it, I would totally rat her out. She's a horrible person and engaged in nasty unethical behavior. It's not worth it if you might be found out as the rat, though.

What's the harm (assuming you can get away with it)? It's all good:

-people might be reminded that it's not okay to do this

-you feel GOOD because she deserves to be ratted out

-you're not gonna get her fired so it's not like you have to worry about hurting her starving family.

-even if the motivation is revenge, so what? It won't really hurt her and some overall good might come from it. Revenge isn't unhealthy when nobody actually gets hurt, but it can still feel good.

I'd leave it go. I'm sorry that you have to deal with someone on a regular basis who acts like this. The good news is December isn't that far away!

In my fantasy, I'd reply to all and add her supervisor's name to the list and write that "I found this email was inappropriate, offensive, and seems to be in violation of company policy. Please remove my name from future emails of this type."

Oly, that's the best. Plus, the boss would have been put on notice too. But I'm afraid this whole situation is fraught with no good deed going unpunished.

Love that Oly! LOL.

Let it rest. While revenge would be nice, I find it hard to believe that reporting it would be of benefit or work out to your favor. One day, Karma will catch up with her and when it does, you'll be able to smile (or laugh) without having to watch your back.

She is leaving in two months!

It's rarely a good idea to come off as a tattletale. Better to overlook & let her hang herself w/ her own rope, IMO.

Thinking about it, if I were deeply bothered by such an email, I might send a reply to her asking something like, "Does this violate our policy?".

This also made me think of a neat site for all kinds of work-related questions, hosted by a very smart woman who appears regularly on APM's Marketplace programs:

http://www.askamanager.org/

I once had a disaster of a boss and folks around her called her out constantly. Their rewards was endless pissing matches with her, personal suffering, and then they left for better jobs. I just dealt with it, and left myself when I could. In the end, bigger and more powerful people than me finally took the time and effort to handle her. It took a while, but my advice is to leave it up to the folks who have less to risk and more power to apply.

Is wrong that I would be tempted to print it out (preferably on a printer near the higher up manger's office or near the biggest gossip in the office) and just leave it there. Maybe multiple times until someone "found" it.

I mentioned this above. This woman is leaving anyway in two months. I understand Neetsie's frustration, but I think it is a moot point.

The only one with something to lose will be Neetsi.

Sometimes one needs to take a stand.