The new he director of our company asked an employee to log in to her manager's email so that hr could see what emails were being sent and workload. The manager, managers boss and company president are all unaware of this request. Is it legal? Company is in ca.

A company owns their e-mail system. Therefor the company is entitled to look at any e-mail activity by any employee.

However its curious that they would go to an employee instead of the IT department. If I were that employee I would tell HR that I'm uncomfortable spying on my manager and that they can get access to his e-mails through IT.

Me personally would not do it. I would not care even if the President of the company ask. If they are in the HR department , they will have access to all company email accounts.

Actually HR would not usually have access, but IT would and they can request access from IT.

If HR asked to access it, the employee would have to get permission from management, to do this. It appears that HR was wanting to get something without official permission. The employee should go to his boss or a higher up manager

I personally would not do it, unless it was from management in writing