Misuse of Email

Misuse of emails in the workplace is an ever growing problem within UK industries, more and more people are opting to send a quick email rather than picking up the telephone to talk to someone, and this is mainly due to the convenience of emailing.

However, the level of convenience can bring problems along with it, the main issue being workplace bullying.

A simple and seemingly innocent email that is sent to a specific person or a group of people can be interpreted very differently by its recipients, not everyone in the workplace shares the same sense of humour! An example that hit the news was when Insurance company Royal & Sun Alliance dismissed ten members of staff for distributing "lewd" Bart Simpson cartoons, in total 77 members of staff from the Company were suspended for having involvement in sending and receiving the emails.

It is important that all members of staff are aware they should not post or send any information that the recipient would potentially find offensive, threatening, indecent or obscene. Members of staff should always consider this before they forward on email threads to all other employees. Staff should also consider their internet policy when replying to an email, if an email has been sent to everyone in the Company by someone and an employee wishes to give their views on the email to the sender, the employee shouldn’t “reply to all”, would they really want the entire Company being aware of their response?

Email misuse should be treated seriously and dealt with in accordance with your disciplinary procedures. An example of where inappropriate email use was dealt with in this way was in July 2002 where HP suspended a large number of its workforce on the grounds of inappropriate use of emails, the exact content of the emails was not disclosed, however it was considered to be so serious that anyone who sent or forwarded on the email was dismissed from the Company. Not only that but anyone who was found to have received the email but had not reported it was put on suspension. Just ignoring or just deleting abusive emails will not ensure that you are complying with Company policies and procedures, if the content of an email is that offensive it could be classed as a crime and therefore should always be reported.

It is important that Companies try to encourage staff members not to use emails as a substitute for telephone or face to face communication with their colleagues. Employees should consider the format in which they are sending their emails, there should be no circumstance in which an email should be written using solely capital letters or in bold print, the sender may do so simply trying to get the point across but the recipient may interpret this as the sender shouting at them.

Discrimination in the workplace is not permitted in any other circumstance so why should it be tolerated simply because it appears in an email; any form of communication which insults or harasses others on the basis of their sex, race, age, sexual orientation, disability or religion should not be permitted in any circumstance. Staff should be aware the even though they have not sent it, by simply drawing another’s attention to the contents of an internet site or a downloaded image can constitute bullying and harassment.

You should ensure that you have an equal opportunities policy and a non harassment policy in place and all members of staff are aware of their contents, this should include the fact that things such as the use of coarse or insensitive jokes and pranks, comments about appearance or character and display of offensive material, written or pictorial, will all be treated very seriously and that whether or not it takes place via emails or in person is irrelevant.

A way to avoid and combat inappropriate email use in the workplace is to ensure that along side your non harassment and equal opportunities policies, you have a manageable internet policy in place to cover this. This policy should include, in detail, what employees should not be using their email/internet network for, for example, to send any messages which could fit in with the examples shown above for an illegal purpose, for personal gain or profit, to access or distribute pornography or to access social networking sites such as Facebook. An employee could put something on a site such as Facebook regarding a colleague with the belief that they will never know about it, however more and more people have access to these sites and information can be passed on very easily, just because the bullying doesn’t happen directly in the workplace, does not mean that it won’t be dealt with as a work issue.

Your internet policy should clearly state that the privacy of any email communication (both internal and external) and internet use while using a Company computer is not guaranteed and an employee should never expect that any message sent will remain private and confidential. All members of staff should sign to confirm that they have read, understood and accepted the terms and that they consented to the monitoring of their emails and internet use, and that you as a Company will, from time to time intercept any email communications (both internal and external) and that the Company will hold personal data for monitoring purposes.

A Company should always be aware that although the employee has a duty to consider the feelings of their colleagues, the Company itself has an overall duty of care for all of its employees.