E-Mail Offers Postcard Privacy
"Lets get together after work tonight. I'll set it up and then E-mail the time and place to you and the rest of the group." This exchange is typical of employee communications at many firms these days. Rather than chats at the water cooler or a quick telephone call, E-mail is now the communications medium of choice by growing numbers of employees.
What is E-mail? For the uninitiated, E-mail is an acronym for Electronic mail, a system of transmitting messages to others via a computerized communications network. In companies where the firm's computers are connected by an internal network, each employee has an assigned "mail box" and the employee can send and receive personalized messages. In today's high tech workplace, supervisors, employees, customers and vendors are as likely to communicate through computerized E-mail as by telephone or the postal service mail system.
In fact, according to one survey, more than 20 million people in the United States use E-mail, including some 60% of employees at the larger Fortune 2000 firms. In another survey, conducted by the Society of Human Resource Management, over 75% of human resources manager respondents reported that their firms used E-mail.
But what privacy protections are provided by E-mail communications? E-mail communication has been likened to Postcard Privacy. Would you put your deepest secrets onto a postcard and then route it through the inter-office mail? The obvious answer is NO. But many E-mail users are lulled into a false sense of security because the E-mail system has log-on passwords, private individualized mail-boxes, and personal access codes, and the delete key. But, consider what happened at the following companies.
Executives at one company told a female manager that her job was eliminated because of a tough economy. Feeling that she had not been treated fairly, the woman filed suit against the company. During legal evidence gathering procedures, her lawyer hired a computer sleuth who turned up a "deleted" message which clearly supported the woman's case that she was not treated fairly. The company promptly offered a large payout to settle her lawsuit.
At another firm, two employees had exchange E-mail messages which were highly critical of company management. The employer intercepted the E-mail messages and dismissed the employees for unprofessional conduct. The employees sued the company for invasion of privacy. In considering this case, the court stated that the employees voluntarily communicated messages over a company communication system which the company has a reasonable basis to monitor. Therefore, reasoned the court, the employee's expectation of privacy was lost and there was no privacy invasion. Generally, other courts considering other similar cases have followed this line of thinking.
To minimize misunderstandings, companies using E-mail should define and communicate an E-mail policy to employees. The policy should assert that E-mail use should be for business communication and not for personal messages. Further, confidential messages, or any form of sexually oriented or other inappropriate messages should not be transmitted through E-mail. Further, since the E-mail system is company property, the employer may monitor messages from time to time to insure that the system is operating properly and employees are complying with use guidelines. A clearly defined policy will help prevent employee relations problems and minimize unrealistic privacy expectations.
William S. Hubbartt is president of Hubbartt & Associates, a St. Charles, IL consulting firm specializing in employee compensation, employee handbooks, personnel policies and supervisory training. (www.Hubbartt.com) Mr. Hubbartt is author of The New Battle Over Workplace Privacy, published by AMACOM Books.
