It’s 2:30 in the afternoon. Trying to fight off midday malaise, you head for the break room. As you walk down the hall, you grow uncomfortable when you notice the stares of your co-workers. Your friend Colleen grabs you before you reach the coffee machine. “Come with me now,” she says.

She takes you to her computer where she opens an e-mail from Eric, the guy you broke up with last week. He has e-mailed everyone you work with, including your boss and your boss’s boss, graphic selfies that you had sent to him while you were on a business trip … the ones he swore he had deleted. The e-mail even includes some sexually charged text messages you two had exchanged.

Originally published in Society for Human Resource Management on July 21, 2014.