Someone to Watch Over Email
Mon Jun 5, 2006 8:28AM EDT
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We should all know this by now, but it's easy to slip into comfortable habits: Be careful what you say and to whom you say what in your work emails.
Why the paranoia? Because someone at your company you've never met could very well be reading your messages.
A survey of more than 400 companies in the United States and the United Kingdom by Forrester Research and Proofpoint Inc. found that more than a third of big companies hire employees to read outbound email as a way of protecting their companies from legal, financial or regulatory problems.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires companies to put in place financial reporting procedures to protect against the kind of accounting scandals and financial malfeasance that brought down Enron, is the main reason companies are watching email transactions more closely.
The result? More than one-third of American companies said they were harmed by the disclosure of sensitive information in the past year. Oh, and one in three companies said they had fired an employee for violating company email policies in the past year.
The takeaway for workers:
• Know your employer's email policy.
• Don't write anything on your work email account you would be embarrassed to read in a newspaper or on a Web site one day.
• Set up a personal Web-based email account for personal emails made during the workday.
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2 Posted by louannlige@rogers.com on Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:59AM EDT Report Abuse
Hear Hear Gabriela - I entirely agree with her comments.
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3 Posted by taksal@rogers.com on Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:04AM EDT Report Abuse
all that you wrote doesnt change the situatio gabrielle
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4 Posted by tonywilcock@rogers.com on Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:11AM EDT Report Abuse
If you can't arrange your life so you don't have to make personal phone calls or send emails at work (emergencies excepted), then maybe you are not organised enough to do your job efficiently. Companies have a right and a responsibility to protect their security. Keep your personal life and your work separate. The stress relief and energising claims are mostly B.S.
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5 Posted by peter_burns@rogers.com on Mon Mar 26, 2007 1:42PM EDT Report Abuse
I disagree with Tony; I think with the "crackberry" phenomenon there is less and less distinctions between your personal life and work. Additionally, while I question how the approach of energizing one's work with chatter for the long run (or water-cooler gossip for that matter). I think folks that can address a situation whenever or whereever (at home or at work) are more than organized to do their job-efficiently; it is called multi-tasking and a necessary part of balancing a life at home or work (and a stress reliever). That said, I agree companies have the right and responsibility to protect their security and interests but so do individuals and employees - I feel personal emails used properly meet the objectives of both the company and the individual, as a happy employee is usually one that is not micromanaged to the point of eating, breathing and bathroom breaks. We work for a life, not live for our work and our work should incorporate the life we want to live.
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1 Posted by gabriela.mocanu@rogers.com on Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:44AM EDT Report Abuse
The employees hate feeling spied and many take the risk that "this is not happening to me and to the email I am just writing." Why? Because they hope their employer is reasonable. We all talk in the phone with family during work. Some overdo it badly. This has happened for generations and the counterproductive time has been extensive. The email offered a chance to save most of this time. A joke is a cure for stress. We all know that laugh is HEALTHY. Telling a joke within a minute or less to all your mailing list can last much less than the time it would take you to tell it to a single friend in the phone. No, personal emails scattered here and there along a working day just make your day, keeps you motivated to work harder after you finish, reduce the personal chatting in offices and consequently the number of work conflicts. Sending within a minutes to your husband the grocery shopping list he has to buy in his way home makes you feel that you achieved a personal goal, and takes that list away from your brain, freeing it to perform better. You work harder and more motivated after you sent the list. Personal emails have a tremendous benefit for the work morale and level of employee satisfaction that checking on them and forbidding them is a MISTAKE. If an employee is evil and determined to leak work related information, HE WILL USE HIS WEB EMAIL. He/she would be aware of the gravity of his doing and WOULD MIND THAT COMPANY EMAIL IS WATCHED. Why would all innocent employees live with endless fear of that? Conclusion: Personal emails from work are the shortest and most effective way to communicate with the outside life (family, friends) and keeps employees motivated to work. They should not be forbidden, but limited to a decent number. Work your mailing list once so that you only use seconds to make all your loved ones happy. Can you replace the happiness to stay in contact with schoolmates at age 55, with neighbors, family and friends during work? If this happens twice a day and you made their day and your day will this bring or take ENERGY from work? It will bring irreplaceable ENERGY FUELING YOUR BODY AND MAKING IT WORK TIMES MORE PRODUCTIVE. And this took less than the traditional personal phone who was understandable for generations. It makes no sense. Gabriela Mocanu