That's two-fold, really:
1- If the "incompetence" part was out of line, then perhaps you could've worded it better.
2- He could've simply proof-read you and then approached you BEFORE forwarding the damn thing.
Sounds like your boss is using your mistake to cover his ass. Not surprising, really.
So in sum, you're responsible for your mistake, but he's responsible for letting the info out. Two-fold.
Yeah, your boss should've left you out of it, by using you he's preserving his "nice guy" capital at your expense. It's a dick move since he's paid to be the jerk and not you.
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"This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can."
-- Capt. Copeland
How much hp and what abilities does this boss have?
I'm a firm believer in judging people for aspects within their control, and incompetence is one of them. Don't take shit.
"Did you read the email before forwarding it? Do you think you should have thought better about that action?"
When you go to HR and they ask how this happened, you say "apparently due to a lot of incompetence in my bosses judgment for what to forward and what not to forward".
It is their fault, bottom line.
I assume anything I write will be forwarded on. I assume that whomever I'm talking to has no idea what "discretion" means, and that they've customized their Outlook ribbon down to just "All Staff" and "Reply All". Even if taking the conversation into meatspace - verbal conversation - I assume my comments will be typed up and distributed as soon as I leave the room.
I proofread everything for snowflake bait and to make sure there's nothing in it that someone can use against me later. My work emails are sterile, non-committal, and largely limited to Captain Obvious statements such as "water is wet" and "puppies are cute". If I need to say something controversial, I'll goad someone else into saying it for me.
Bosses fault, unless you knew ahead of time the email would be forwarded. It's his job to make sure the contents of the email are appropriate before he presses send.
If you did know it would be forwarded, or if that's a common practice in your company, you are partially to blame, but again he should make sure before he sends it. Sounds like he was just being lazy and didn't want to write something up, so he just sent out what you wrote. I do that shit all the time when I get an email from customers that my boss needs to see, but I always make sure what I forward won't get me or the customer in trouble.
https://www.hotslogs.com/Player/Prof...ayerID=1579599
"MMOC forums let me keep my job again. Whew." -Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street