my coworker sent a rude message about me and I saw it

A reader asks:

I was on a Zoom call recently with the president of our company and two junior staff members who I do not manage directly.

I made a comment during the meeting, and suddenly a snarky Slack message about me from one of the junior members of my team came across my screen. (She said, “Uhhh, that’s literally what I said a minute ago,” seemingly about a suggestion I made to the president.) She had accidentally sent it to the entire team when it was meant for one of the other junior employees. All of the team members looked first confused then horrified, but didn’t say anything. When she realized her mistake, she quickly deleted it, and then the meeting progressed awkwardly as if nothing happened.

When the president asked her about it in a meeting a few days later, she completely denied it. There is no proof of it because it was deleted but everyone on the call saw it. I’m not sure how to move forward with her, as it’s a she said-she said situation without photo evidence.

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.

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