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02/13/2008: "Beware..."

Nana saw a story on the Today show and asked me to relay the information to the family...

We’re used to doing personal email at work. As the Internet evolved, our personal Internet habits evolved with it. However, “The Workplace: Your company monitors your personal e-mail” by Matt Villano at the International Herald Tribune should give you enough reasons to start changing your email habit in the workplace. Here are six key points to think about as you reconsider how you email:

1. A new policy to monitor all outgoing e-mail, including personal correspondence at work: Should you be concerned? “Don’t panic, but definitely watch your back…messages about anything other than work might attract unwanted attention…Nothing you’re doing on e-mail is worth jeopardizing your career.”
2. Employers have the right to monitor email: “The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and other U.S. regulations require publicly traded companies to archive all e-mail messages. Employers in the private sector also have complete authority to scrutinize every word, provided that they have established a policy and put it into writing.”
3. Monitoring of e- mail is common: Some monitor every message while others monitor attachments. Why monitor? “Some companies say they do it to control the information that employees send through the corporate network, make sure employees stay on task, or as a measure of network security, or to see how employees are communicating with customers.”
4. To what degree is personal e-mail acceptable at work: “Personal e-mail messages are like personal phone calls — even the most stringent companies may allow them in moderation…If you have to wonder whether you’re writing too many personal e- mails on company time, you probably are.”
5. Yes, you can be fired for personal emailing: “In the United States and many other countries, yes. Because companies in most U.S. states offer employment at will, they can terminate employees at any time, and may do so if they decide that an employee has misused corporate e-mail.”
6. Protecting your personal correspondence: You can use email systems like Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo all operate through a standard Web browser; however, “some companies monitor all outgoing Internet traffic for personal use, meaning that they can read messages from these sites as easily as they can read regular e-mail.”

Replies: 3 Comments

When my boss sits and has a couple beers at his desk on a Friday afternoon, I don't worry too bad. He's not real strict and as long as I do what I need to, he doesn't care. I don't send too many personal e-mails during the day anyway... just a few quick posts here usually. He's a really great guy and looks out for me. He doesn't even let me stay late at work alone. He told me that I am the closest thing to a daughter her has, so he is protective (he has all boys). But thank you for the info and I will be careful.

Erin said on Friday, February 15th @ 08 :59 AM CST

They talked to several people that had sent personal Emails and got fired. Please be careful and just don't do it. Send them from your home computer. I worry about all my kids and their careers. Mom

hot mama said on Thursday, February 14th @ 03 :27 PM CST

I'm so glad I do not work for corporate America anymore. My boss and I laugh about that all the time and we are thankful to be a part of something that we can have fun doing and not worry about this kind of stuff. It makes me want to work harder. Thanks for the info. If I ever go back to corporate America, I will keep this in mind.

Erin said on Thursday, February 14th @ 09 :10 AM CST