Be careful how you use email at work
Companies’ principal worries about email use are that employees could be breaking financial disclosure or corporate governance rules, could be leaking intellectual property or trade secrets, could be leaking sensitive memos or could be breaching privacy regulations.
Out-Law.com recently reported that half of UK companies have fired an employee for serious misuse of company email:
Privacy issues aside, I can’t believe that anyone could be so silly to use company email to break company rules. But then, we have had the case of the City lawyer and his Ketchup damages claim and the The guy who bragged about his sex life in an email so I suppose it’s completely plausible that someone could that stupid to send out banned information from a traceable source.
As email is used more and more, it’s going to get abused more and more, sad but true.
My personal pet peve (currently) is people misusing the subject line – or worse still, not putting a subject in. That really makes me mad. Of course, it’s not a sackable offence (although I think it should be) and it’s nowhere near as bad as sending secret financial information to your stock market broker but still..!
Keep your eyes peeled for my upcoming ebook on Email and Email Etiquette which will help us all to understand what is (and isn’t) acceptable in workplace email, make your emails more readable and will (hopefully) stop you getting fired*.
Can’t wait for your copy? Why not subcribe and get a Free download of my “Managing Meetings” ebook – go an, you know you want to!
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*Please note that I take no responsibility if you are fired!
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