defamation of character

[Anonymous <no_email@fake.address>]

I was previously employed by an "international trucking company."  I was a customer service representative, the only female in that department.  I didn't work in the same office space where the department was at, I was placed in another department in which we worked personally with a client.  In this department, there were a total of 4 women, including me.  Their duties were not the same as mine, being that they were dispatchers.  My duties were to book loads for that important client and to send them out immediately when the trailers would arrive in the yard.  I never had a problem with the company or management.  I would always work late, weekends and even Holidays.  Within the year and four months that I was with the company I even received three pay increases, which clearly showed that I was doing a good job.  My problem started when I began to attend college on August, I did notify my immediate supervisor about it and he agreed to change my schedule.  I had a good and friendly relationship with my supervisor.  He was not the customer service manager, but he was the manager for the department I was placed in.  Since I could no longer stay late, part of my duties where given to the gentlemen in the customer service department, being that they had night shifts.  On Thursday, September the 14th I received an e-mail sent by the customer service manager.  He talked about me on that e-mail.  He critisized my work, my speed in booking and compared me to one of his male employees.  He said that the gentleman was 10 times faster than me and that if I needed any more training they were wiling to help me as long I put an effort into it.  When I read this e-mail, I felt embarrassed.  Mostly because I was never notified by my supervisor that I wasn't doing my job properly, I thought I was doing fine.  The only difference was that I could no longer stay late.  To make matters worse, I was about to close the e-mail when I realized that the e-mail was sent to my co-workers, whom had nothing to do with the work that I did.  Of course, this was very humiliating.  I immediately went to see my supervisor and asked if I could go home, because I couldn't stop crying.  He agreed to let me go and he knew it was because of that e-mail.  No one called me after I left to apologize.  Not even the day after when I called in sick because I was very embarrassed.   I decided to resign from the company because the employees were already saying that I was lazy on the job and that an e-mail had to be sent out.  My question is, "Should I see a lawyer about this?"  I certainly wouldn't like for this to be repeated.