So a friend of mine, they work at a different company than I do. However I figured their situation would be worth bringing up. The friend announced 2 weeks ago they would be retiring early next year to their job, gave notice and has been asked to write up their duties and responsibilities before leaving for their coworkers to take over the responsibilities. Turns out it was a good time to retire, as holiday bonuses were slashed, and the head of the company has been looking for more and more ways to enrich his own personal wealth at the behest of the company. All this leads up to the head of the company tasking my friend with a huge project that my friend is not comfortable taking on while also leaving the company. However upon opening the email with the project attachments, one of the attachment was seemingly included by mistake. That attachment is an email from the head of the company to a contractor about getting approval to fire over 50% of their workforce.
My friend cares a lot about their coworkers and is trying to decide how to let them know that this is happening without themselves ending up in a courtroom. My friend was not promised any benefit severance, retirement bonus or anything for retiring. Should they tell the rest of her coworkers and if so what would be the safest way to do so, while not risking any legal trouble.