Lunchbox wants to know if it’s illegal to open mail for an employee who does not work with the company anymore.
There has been a box labeled to an employee who no longer works with the company sitting in the mailroom for about three months now and Lunchbox wants to open it. He does not know what is in the box but wants to open it because the person it’s meant for will never receive it, and he does not want to bother contacting them about it.
Lunchbox understands going through someone’s mailbox and opening their mail is illegal, but since the box is just sitting on a table in the open, he feels like they should be allowed to open it. Upon doing further research, they found that it’s legal for an employee to open mail from a former employee if it’s delivered to the organization. But employees should be aware of common law privacy claims. So, if he opens it and it’s something private that they didn’t want people to see, he could get in trouble for it. Everyone agreed it’s best to leave the package alone and not open it.