Comments on: Use Work Email Very Carefully

By: thc

thc — Sun, 20 May 2007 04:14:26 +0000

Jim: Regardless of how many people were on the distribution list, you were reading 300 personal emails/day. Don’t you feel guilty about cashing your paycheck when you’re spending that kind of time on BS? You’d never work for me.

By: Foobarista

Foobarista — Sat, 19 May 2007 19:16:39 +0000

In order to do Sarbanes Oxley compliance, all company emails, IMs, etc have to be archived and easily searchable.

By: jim

jim — Sat, 19 May 2007 15:41:13 +0000

Nice generalization, 300 would be a lot for 5 people, but it’s not that many when you factor in the 20 people on the list.

By: thc

thc — Sat, 19 May 2007 14:30:59 +0000

At 300 emails a day, it’s clear you weren’t very serious about your work.

By: Beth

Beth — Sat, 19 May 2007 09:44:27 +0000

Is’t also something of an issue that you all were spending your company’s time (i.e., money) sending hundreds of non-work-related emails a day?

By: jim

jim — Sat, 19 May 2007 03:17:48 +0000

Ha, hardly, I’m the one on the other extreme. Land of the free should be free for everyone.

By: John

John — Fri, 18 May 2007 23:24:12 +0000

So what are you saying Jim? You want a forum where you can express your hate for illegal immigrants; one, which your employer won’t read?

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 18 May 2007 20:32:52 +0000

oh, and putting @ and other symbols in lieu of letters shows two things: first, you are aware of the policies; second, that you purposely are doing things to evade those policies. Pretty strong case for the employer and against the employee.

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 18 May 2007 20:30:37 +0000

bottom line, don’t do anything on work computers if you do not want to face ramifications for doing them. there is no expectation of privacy, and i cannot believe how many people still go on about as if it were.

By: SP

SP — Fri, 18 May 2007 15:31:51 +0000

I worked for a large securities firm in a small office where the emails were read by a very nosey person. Instead of looking for compliance related issues and policy situations, that person would comment on the new car you were purchasing, the pending elopement, or your relative’s psychosis, to whomever was within earshot. Personal, private emails such as yahoo were blocked, so this was it. There is no privacy at work, but this is an abuse of the system on the other end.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 18 May 2007 13:35:17 +0000

This is the difference between American and Australian cultures, compared to the Japanese.

In Japan, they are silent the entire day. Forget about friendly chats. The work hardfor their employer as they are grateful for their job.

In our cultures, it is very different. This would not even be in issue in Japan.

By: cami

cami — Thu, 17 May 2007 23:14:53 +0000

I went to a diversity and harassment training workshop earlier this week. They told us that if we sent an email, and it was forwarded to someone who found it offensive we could be investigated for harassment. If the incident was found to be harassment against a protected class, we could be kicked out of grad school. This went for jokes, cartoons, etc. Even if you didn’t send it originally to the person who was offended you are still responsible. This has made me put school/work email in a whole new light. Then again, they also apply this policy to public email accounts so it’s made me think twice about sending emails to anyone affiliated with my university. That might be something you want to check on as well, because computer policies are often applied to more than just your email.

By: jim

jim — Thu, 17 May 2007 23:14:32 +0000

Geeze… that is a LOT scarier than some automated software looking for keywords and keyphrases…

By: Art Dinkin

Art Dinkin — Thu, 17 May 2007 21:22:56 +0000

About 4 years ago I was working with a large company who made it abundantly clear that there was no expectation of privacy with company email. One day I received a phone call from our compliance department. The voice on the phone told me they were auditing my securities registration and noticed I failed to disclose my involvement as Secretary of our local Rotary Club. She also told me what I needed to do to fix my registration.

I did what she asked me to do but then I asked “How did you know I was the Rotary Club secretary?” Her response… “I am the person assigned to read your email”!!!

That single experience made me look at email in a completely different light.

Art Dinkin