I saw my employee’s X-rated chat

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

A reader writes:

Today, during a screensharing session with my new employee, Barb, I saw something inappropriate on her screen and did not speak up. I was so dumbfounded that I just quickly wrapped up our call. I’m almost sure I saw her chat session with a coworker with explicit reference to private body parts. Both the screenshare software and chat software are part of the same company-provided system; it’s typically used for training and collaboration.

Should I say anything to Barb? Or try to forget I ever saw anything? Since my view of the chat window happened very quickly, and I have no “proof,” I’m not sure I should say anything, especially when the content was something I’d rather not repeat.

Some background: Barb and I work at different offices. Her previous manager felt that Barb wasn’t a fit for her role and was trying to manage her out; there was a skill mismatch, but Barb also needed to improve her attention to detail. When I learned this, I thought she could be a good fit for my team and proposed bringing her over. I was up-front with her that she would need to improve her attention to detail. She indicated commitment to improving that area and seemed genuinely excited about the opportunity. But because she’s continued to make frequent errors, I’ve had to hold back on fully transitioning some portions of the job to her. I’ve had conversations at the time errors presented, and a general conversation about the pattern of errors, backed up by retraining.

I would love your advice as this situation has made me uncomfortable.

I answer this question over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.