New manager directly emailing team from personal email, yet they do not start for 3 months [closed]

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

New manager is starting in 3 months, and yet she is emailing the team from her personal email with a big long list of 60 or so questions about our current work practices. Talk about a poor introduction...this has set everyone on edge. To complicate matters, our old boss is working as a contractor currently and he is still our direct supervisor, and they are not on this email. We have a deadline coming up regarding our product too, adding to the stress (software development). Unsure how the new boss has our email addresses.

What is the right process here?

On one hand, inform our current boss as they should be completing handover... or ask HR what the current status is and if we should reply to someone that has not started yet . Any of these place us in an awkward position.

manpreet 2 years ago

You do not share information with anyone outside your company without your manager’s explicit authorization.

You should forward this email to your existing manager immediately, and you should not respond to it.

• You do not know if the pending manager has been vetted and/or signed all appropriate NDA's with your new company.
• This new manager is not yet an employee, and has no authority for you to assign your time to this task.
• It is entirely possible that this is an attempt at corporate espionage. Even a "missing" item on your list could haunt you. ("You shouldn't hire Innotech. They don't even do Widget-based testing on their Kerfuffler development.")
• You have not been instructed to do any of this by your existing reporting chain.

If your manager instructs you to respond, then do so. Until then, report it to your manager and await instructions. When your new manager comes on board if they ask why it was handled that way, explain that you were acting as instructed and they should talk to whomever gave you direction about the reasons.