Just Because You’ve Been Diagnosed as Paranoid Doesn’t Mean That Your Company Isn’t Watching You
Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 by Frank Roche
Note to employees: Your company is watching you. And as much as I personally dislike that (and many of you do, too), it’s their equipment and they’re paying you to work…not play. So, you might want to think about sending notes to a co-worker who isn’t your wife that says, “I think about us together all of the time. Little moments like watching your face when you kiss me.” Oops. That’s what USA Today reports in a story called Wal-Mart alleges sex, misdeeds in counterclaim to firing lawsuit.
Lots of Inappropriate E-Mail: The Repercussions
If that Wal-Mart story isn’t enough to remind you of how to use company e-mail (as in, if you wouldn’t want your grandmother to read it, or if you wouldn’t want to see it printed in USA TODAY, then don’t send it), then I’ve done a public service and added a couple other cautionary tales for your reading pleasure.
Rep. Mark Foley and the White House Pages. We all know about this one, but the Rep. Foley story tells about e-mail monitoring and how hitting delete doesn’t work.
I once witnessed an incredible e-mail faux pas a long time ago, sort of at the early entry point of e-mail in business. A guy in a group I worked in, which was very few men and a LOT of women, wrote up a detailed report of partying and debauchery at his bachelor party…in Las Vegas. And somehow, instead of sending it to the group he wanted to (I can’t imagine why he’d want to send it to anyone) he accidentally hit “All Group” in Lotus Notes. And before you could say ruh-roh in your best Scooby-Doo voice, over 100 people were reading his e-mail. And what happened in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas. Not once he hit “send.”
Use Your Own Equipment for Your Own Business
Here’s what my dad would have said: Don’t be a bonehead. If you have personal business, either on the phone or by e-mail, use your own stuff. I’ve seen it happen all too often that people get caught up with what they think is private communication when they might as well have written it on a flying banner over the Super Bowl.
Chris Took
Mar 23rd, 2007
Too true. There was that quality story at a law firm the other day where the entire company got copied into a dispute over a ketchup stain on a suit. One of the directors on circa 100k was trying to squeeze our of a PA on circa 20k the £5 dry cleaning cost. I think is now on a sabbatical.
Frank Roche
Mar 23rd, 2007
Chris, that is another really great story of e-mail staying around…and being used. Amazing about that one. I wonder what it costs to wash shame out of his clothes.
Scott McArthur
Mar 25th, 2007
I have to “let go” 60 people a while back for distributing porn over the company email system. Totally stupid and a waste of a lot of people’s time. I belive that people should be free to do what they like but that was taking it a bit far!
Frank Roche
Mar 25th, 2007
Scott, that is a zoiks! moment. I guess that I can think of ways that companies can make sure their employees are not working in a hostile working environment and still not be Big Brother. Wow, 60 people. What was the ‘for cause” element? Misuse of company resources? Or was it about porn specifically? In other words, was it bandwidth and not content?
Scott McArthur
Mar 25th, 2007
It was a combination of denial and content! Terrible few weeks for the business and the individuals alike.
Frank Roche
Mar 25th, 2007
Ah, yes, the denial. It’s the Prisoner’s Dilemma. And inevitably there’s evidence. Add this to another cautionary tale. Wow…I can’t imagine how upside-down it must have been minus 60 people, no matter the size of the organization.
Scott McArthur
Mar 26th, 2007
Yea! What made it worse was that it was a manufacturing business with some very specialised skills. We did manage however and in fact the factory broke records the following month. I wonder what that says for the workforce. I put it down to a kind of corporate “action slip” where a group of people make a mistake and get in so deep they can’t get out.
The one thing that makes you reflect though is this, often although the pain at the point of separation is shared between the person and the business (especially the HR professional) the pain tends to fade quickly for the staff but lingers for the HR practitioner. I have the scars to show for it!