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Springs
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 636

Posted 1/23/2003 7:10 AM (GMT -6)

I know they say don't write anything on email you woudn't want in the morning paper. I understand how that relates to a conversational ethic, if you will, but what do they mean when they say email is public domain?

Is it only because the authorities can seize and search you e-mail? And because hackers could check it out?

And what is the etiquette for sharing emails? For instance, busy professionals often delegate their email, and sometimes when I respond personally to people I discover later that they have forwarded my response to someone else. What the dilleo?

Springs

"When all was over, and the last key turned, I sought my pillow, thankful that God had appointed a season of rest for the weary." Harriet Jacobs

Edited by - Springs on 01/23/2003 12:28:37 PM

Mayflower
Registered Member

Date Joined Mar 2002
Total Posts : 445

Posted 7/10/2003 8:14 AM (GMT -6)

Greetings, Springs:

The attached article was posted on AOL News this morning.
As it appears to address the question that you posted a while back, I thought I'd pass it along...

I hope it's helpful.

Peace & blessings,

<><

ALSO SEE:
ePolicy Institute - ePolicies
http://www.epolicyinstitute.com/e_policies/index.html

===================================================================

Article:

E-TERMINATION
"Employees are getting fired for e-mail infractions"

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Despite the well-publicized role incriminating e-mail messages played in the permanent barring of two securities analysts, U.S. workers continue to underestimate the power of the medium, a new survey finds.

Twenty-two percent of companies have fired an employee over improper e-mail use, up from 17 percent in 2001, according to a survey of 1,100 companies conducted by The ePolicy Institute, the American Management Association and Clearswift, maker of software to manage and secure electronic communications.

"Because e-mail is so quick and easy, and so anonymous, people will say things in an e-mail message that they would never say via the telephone, the fax or in person," said Nancy Flynn, author of "E-Mail Rules" and executive director of The ePolicy Institute.

But the fault can't be laid entirely at workers' feet, she said: "Because employees aren't being trained or educated, they're not aware of the risks."

Seventy-five percent of companies have a written e-mail policy, but that number declined from 81 percent in the earlier survey.

And those that have written policies don't always disseminate them: Only 48 percent of firms train workers about e-mail policies. Still, that's up from 24 percent in 2001.

A Washington-based state agency recently fired a group of employees for sending
off-color messages, Flynn said. "When those employees were interviewed, a number of them said 'I didn't even know we had an e-mail policy,'" she said.

"The other comment was, 'I could name a dozen other people who've done the same thing.' It's really incumbent on employers not only to put policies in place but make employees sign and date an acknowledgment," she said.

COMMON, AND PROBLEMATIC, THEMES

Among the most common problems in e-mail: Messages that create a sexist, racist or hostile work environment, experts said.

One e-mail message that made the rounds at Chevron in 1999 was titled "25 reasons why beer is better than women," Flynn said. Four female executives used it as evidence of a hostile work environment and were awarded $2.2 million.

"People forget this is now on electronic letterhead," said Ivan O'Sullivan, a vice president at Clearswift. "They wouldn't take that material and print it out onto letterhead and fax it out to 50 friends. People treat it too casually, and as a result you end up with cases like Chevron," he said.

When pornographic messages were being sent through Dow Chemical's e-mail system, the company responded by firing 64 workers and disciplining another 230, Flynn said.

JUST BETWEEN CO-WORKERS

While 52 percent of companies use software to monitor incoming e-mail, only 19 percent monitor internal correspondence between employees.

"That's a big oversight," Flynn said. "It's those messages one employee sends to another employee that are likely to be off the cuff and casual, and potentially trigger a lawsuit or other e-mail disaster."

While workers might be disciplined or fired based on inappropriate e-mail messages, companies are at risk for lawsuits under a legal rule called vicarious liability. "Under that principle, the employer is held legally responsible for the bad actions of the employee," Flynn said.

"If an employee sends an offensive e-mail message that triggers a claim of a hostile work environment, it's the employer who will be sued," she said.

But those companies that have a well-documented e-mail policy, and a history of ongoing employee education, can often skirt a suit by using that policy as a defense.

Another growing company concern is finding and recovering electronic messages subpoenaed for court proceedings: 14 percent of companies report having e-mail messages subpoenaed, up from 9 percent in 2001.

E-mail is "in such broad use today that chances are there's going to be a smoking gun somewhere in your e-mail archive," O'Sullivan said. "Since organizations are retaining and archiving e-mail, (lawyers) understand the first place to look is in the email archive," he said, adding that a judge in a recent case told a company to pay in excess of $175,000 to recover sent e-mail.

PAUSE BEFORE SEND

Employees need to find out what their firm's rules are in order to avoid straying into dangerous e-mail ground, experts said.

"Be completely aware of what your organization's e-mail policies are and make sure that you comply with those polices, or run the risk of being terminated," Flynn said.

Also, remember that you have no control over where your message will ultimately end up. "It sounds really basic, and yet it certainly would appear that many people don't get it: E-mail is the worst possible way to communicate a message that is confidential or private," Flynn said.

"If you got into a crowded elevator with your competitors, your colleagues, and your customers, would you say it out loud? If you wouldn't, don't say it in an e-mail message," Flynn said.

Ditto for instant messaging, O'Sullivan said, where people are, if anything, more liable to write things they may later regret.

[end]

Edited by - Mayflower on 07/10/2003 1:18:26 PM

Laika
Registered Member

Date Joined Mar 2003
Total Posts : 2433

Posted 7/10/2003 8:34 AM (GMT -6)

Springs

When you want REAL privacy, send it by Pony Express.

DLW
Registered Member

Date Joined Apr 2003
Total Posts : 2457

Posted 7/10/2003 8:43 AM (GMT -6)

or just post whatever random thoughts enter into your mind here at the discussion board.
dlw

Prayer from Kenya

From the Cowardice that dare not face new truth,
From the Laziness that is contented with half-truth,
From the Arrogance that thinks it knows all truth,
Lord Deliver Me.

Mayflower
Registered Member

Date Joined Mar 2002
Total Posts : 445

Posted 7/10/2003 11:24 AM (GMT -6)

.
.
.

Or, perhaps you could try going
incognito...

DLW
Registered Member

Date Joined Apr 2003
Total Posts : 2457

Posted 7/10/2003 12:07 PM (GMT -6)

Or I could just switch my log-in names and start posting replies to all the links where nobody responded.

dlw

Prayer from Kenya

From the Cowardice that dare not face new truth,
From the Laziness that is contented with half-truth,
From the Arrogance that thinks it knows all truth,
Lord Deliver Me.

Starkman
Registered Member

Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1747

Posted 7/10/2003 5:13 PM (GMT -6)

I am reading this ... I see all ... I know all!!!

Springs
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 636

Posted 7/10/2003 7:25 PM (GMT -6)

Sheesh, Mayflower how did you find this old thread?

Thanks for the article and site. I read a similar article in the Pioneer Press recently. They quoted some IT security guy saying he would never look at some employees the same again after reading their emails.

Did you know that some companies block any email contact between their employees and individuals working for their competition? (like Medtronic and Sci-Med fer instance)

But I was actually talking about personal email.
It WAS sort of random... and rambling. I was just grousing because a gal had emailed me for some help with schoolwork and then she forwarded my reply to her professor, and then she forward the whole thing again back to me, and I just thought...well...what the dilleo, as mentioned above. I'm not worried about offending anyone, or incriminating myself, it just seemed a bit presumptuous and... I don't know...

Do conversational ethics apply? In that, anything that is not labeled confidential may be shared constructively with others. Sort of like hearing from one person about who won at Wimbledon, and listening to another on the finer points of preparing bearings for installation in a combustion engine, and then telling a third party both stories later.

Or for pete's sake, this is so trivial, I can barely stand to spend time writing about it. Let's try this.

Who thinks it would be perfectly ethical for me to share a far out email I got from a guru so we could all discuss the philosophy?

DLW if you are insinuating that Mayflower is me, you may owe him or her an apology.

JCsites.com
Registered Member

Date Joined Jun 2001
Total Posts : 169

Posted 7/11/2003 6:44 AM (GMT -6)

Springs,

Just want you to know that I have taken 100% of your posts to this board, compiled them in an e-mail and forwared it to 1 thousand people.

I think I'm so funny

JC Sites Guy

PS. Conversational ethics should apply, but soceity has not yet come to that conclusion.

Make Posts Not War...

Laika
Registered Member

Date Joined Mar 2003
Total Posts : 2433

Posted 7/11/2003 7:02 AM (GMT -6)

www.the_emails_of_Springs.com

Cool website but the server is currently down.

Springs
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 636

Posted 7/12/2003 9:16 AM (GMT -6)

I think you’re pretty funny too JC.

Thanks Laika, very funny.

So what have we all learned today?
Nobody condones it,
Everybody does it,
Nobody will admit it.

So, no guru email.

And quit reading my posts, Starky.

Edited by - Springs on 07/12/2003 2:20:22 PM

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