E-mail – Use It With Caution! by Angela M. Cranon, M.A. Executive Managing Editor

Employees, did you know: E-mail, whether personal or business oriented, belongs to the employer and can be used on your behalf, or against you in a court of law? Employers, did you know: The company can be held liable for material sent via e-mail?

Since the inception of the Internet and e-mail, these electronic tools have been used very casually in the workplace, particularly e-mail, because 90 percent of employees in a workplace have on-line access. Even though employers and employees send e-mails which contain personal and private information, in the eyes of a court of law, there is no privacy.

Most employees, especially those who do not have on-line access at home, retrieve and send personal messages at work. Employers write e-mails as though only a selective set of eyes will view the document. But e-mail establishes proof in court which can be viewed as a binding legal document. In fact, according to an article in USA Today, entitled “E-mail Delivers Legal, Privacy Issues,” e-mail is as important as a piece paper.

Deleting e-mail from a computer doesn’t mean the message disappears. Messages may be erased from the screen, but they remain on hard drives, the function of which is to store information. Also, according to USA Today, systems can be backed up. Information can be stored on tapes. In some cases, systems are backed up once a day or several times a week. Although you may delete your e-mail message from the computer, there is a tape which stores all messages. E-mail can even be retrieved from two years ago and sometimes more, depending on the company’s server.

According to a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, 20 percent of employers have received complaints about inappropriate e-mail. Also, according to a survey by the American Management Associate, 35 percent of employers use surveillance tactics which may include reading e-mail.

"It is simply good business etiquette to share such information with
employees rather than using e-mail as a weapon to catch someone in the act."

For this reason, it is important for employers and employees to protect themselves. To do this, companies need to take a major role in training their employees at all levels of e-mail usage. Issues concerning how to approach e-mail and thinking about the message before sending it need to be addressed. The main question that needs to be implanted in the mind of every person who uses e-mail at the workplace is “What would this look like in a court of law?”

Teaching an employee and the management team about the pros and cons of using e-mail and writing e-mail messages can be advantageous and ultimately financially beneficial to the company. It is simply good business etiquette to share such information with employees rather than using e-mail as a weapon to catch someone in the act.

As a start, teach and encourage employees to:

• Avoid sending personal messages.
• Write business messages that are professional, as though they were being submitted as letters or memorandums to the entire company.
• Avoid using terminology and language that would be unacceptable in a letter or a memorandum.
• Be aware of long-term e-mail access when sending a confidential message concerning a staff member, and send only professionally written business messages.
• Make sure employees understand the seriousness of e-mail as proof in a court of law.

It is frightening, yet not hard to believe, that this and other advanced technology could also represent weapons, evidence, and — in the workplace — possible termination. Temptation to use improper etiquette in the workplace may be very strong, even with the knowledge of potential consequences. The key, however, is to be aware, never take advantage of the casual use of e-mail, and decide whether or not sending personal messages via e-mail is worth the risk. Think about it!

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