Inappropriate 'reply-all' email leads to employee's dismissal

Inappropriate ‘reply-all’ email leads to employee’s dismissal | Insurance Business New Zealand

Business Strategy

Inappropriate ‘reply-all’ email leads to employee’s dismissal

Employer now sued for defamation after email leaks online

Business Strategy

By
Dexter Tilo

A former employee of the San Francisco District Attorney has been fired after mistakenly sending an “inappropriate email” to all staffers of the organisation, according to reports.

Jovan Thomas, 56, was fired after he mistakenly sent a reply-all email that read: “what color panties you have on.”

The email was a reply to a calendar invitation from District Attorney Brooke Jenkins about an anti-discrimination meeting, news.com.au reported.

Thomas explained in a follow-up email to all employees that the message was intended for a fraternity brother who he was texting back and forth at the time.

“I sincerely apologise to everyone,” he said. “Please know this is not who I am as a person as I carry myself with respect and dignity.”

Employee terminated

Randy Quezada, a spokesman for the DA’s Office, said Thomas has been terminated because of the incident.

“This misogynistic behaviour violates the office’s code of conduct and this individual has been terminated,” he said in a statement.

According to Quezada, there was also no relationship between Jenkins and Thomas.

“The District Attorney’s Office is committed to maintaining a professional office environment where all staff members are treated with dignity and respect and not subject to harassment or a hostile work environment.”

Suing the district attorney

The emails, however, were leaked on social media platform X, which led to Thomas launching legal action against Jenkins and the DA’s office for defamation, news.com.au reported.

According to the report, Thomas is alleging that people within the office contacted members of the press about the incident. He also claims that his former employer failed to explain to the media that the message was a “wacky email the plaintiff intended to send to a friend.”

It stated that Thomas was texting with a “straight, male, long-time personal friend and fraternity brother who was in New Zealand to bury his father” when the email from Jenkins arrived, causing the mistake.

“Hoping to cheer up his friend, who was distraught and grieving the death of his father, plaintiff intended to text his friend a jokey question of the sort that that plaintiff had sent his friend on occasion in the past in order to cheer him up – namely, ‘what colour are your panties?'” the document read.