Should you use email tracking with your employer? [closed]

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

There are several plugins for email services like Gmail that can track emails you send and notify you when it has been opened/viewed by a recipient.

I am tempted to use it with my employer/HR in order to know if delays in response are due to them ignoring me, or simply not having opened the mail yet (and might need a reminder).

The problem is that these trackers themselves can be detected and I'm not sure what employers think of this.

manpreet 2 years ago

Whatever your problem is, it is not solved by knowing whether HR opened your email.

Really, there is no difference between HR ignoring your email by not opening it, or opening it and then doing nothing. Knowing which of these scenarios is occuring doesn't better equip you for a response. If someone hasn't responded in a reasonable amount of time, a reminder is appropriate, whether the email has been opened or not.

Furthermore, trying to track/monitor others' actions rather than trusting co-workers to do their jobs will be seen as adversarial and suspicious behavior. If discovered, this would look bad.

In short, don't do it.

Note: I assume you refer to something like hidden pixel email tracking. Email receipt functionality such as that found in Outlook is fairly innocuous and probably not going to cause concern if you use it...but I still don't really find it useful, for the reasons given here.