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ePolicy Institute eNews Bulletin
March 2001
Editor Nancy Flynn
http://www.epolicyinstitute.com
experts@epolicyinstitute.com
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Committed to Reducing Workplace eLiabilities and Maximizing eCommunications
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In this Issue:
*Bad E-Mail Is Bad Business: Using a Written ePolicy to Battle Nasty, Naughty E-Mail
*Sexual Harassment Claims: How to Protect Your Organization from eLiability
*eDisaster of the Month: US Congress Overwhelmed by Constituent eMail
*Truth Is Stranger than Fiction
*Leading ePolicy Expert Comes Right to Your Door
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Bad E-Mail Is Bad Business: Using a Written ePolicy to Battle Nasty, Naughty E-Mail
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The power of e-mail is considerable. You can send electronic sales letters across times zones with a single click. You can respond to customer inquiries and complaints in seconds. And you can do it all from the comfort and convenience of your home, car, or office.
With all that power comes responsibility. Send a well-written e-mail message that is appropriate in language, tone, and content, and you'll position yourself as an effective eCommunicator. Send an electronic message that is abusive, harassing, menacing, or otherwise inappropriate, and you're likely to land on the wrong side of a workplace lawsuit.
It should come as no surprise to anyone with an e-mail address that offensive e-mail is rampant. In fact, according to an Elron Software survey, nearly 50 percent of U.S. employees with access to the Internet report receiving racist, sexist, pornographic, or otherwise inappropriate e-mail at work. With multimedia applications bringing sound and video images to more computer screens in growing numbers of organizations, the likelihood of employee exposure to pornographic, racist, sexist, hateful, menacing, or otherwise inappropriate e-mail continues to grow. Simultaneously, the electronic liabilities confronting employers are on the rise.
As an employer, you cannot be present in every office on every floor of every facility every hour of every day. You cannot rely on managers and employees to exercise sound judgment, civil behavior, and good taste 100 percent of the time.
What you can do, however, is take the initiative. Don't wait for Disaster to strike. Combat the abuse and misuse of employee e-mail by developing and implementing a written eMail Policy.
For responsible organizations operating in the age of e-mail, a written ePolicy is an essential business tool. An e-mail policy that is well-written and effectively communicated to all employees is one of the best ways for employers to protect themselves from the risks associated with employees sending nasty, naughty, not-so-nice e-mail.
The implementation of a written ePolicy that incorporates the rules of Netiquette, or e-mail etiquette, is one of the most effective ways to clean up bad e-mail and control employees' online behavior.
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Five Tips for Developing a Successful ePolicy
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*Reconcile Privacy Expectations with Privacy Rights. The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) gives employers the right to monitor all the e-mail traffic and Internet surfing that occurs on the organization's computer system. Use your written e-Mail Policy to give employees explicit written notice that they do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Exercise your right to monitor employee e-mail. And back your policy up by installing software designed to monitor and filter inappropriate, offensive e-mail coming into and/or out of your system.
*Educate Your Employees. Many employees are unaware of the eRisks facing their employers and themselves. As an employer, you are responsible for alerting employees to the electronic dangers they face personally and professionally, as well as the eLiabilities confronting the organization. Start by informing employees that you do indeed have the right to read their e-mail. Review your harassment, discrimination, and other employment policies--and make sure employees understand those policies apply to e-mail. Conclude with a discussion of the penalties employees will face should they violate the organization's e-mail Policy.
*Watch What You Say About Others. Employers may have to defend against defamatory e-mail communications. In one case, a discharged employee brought an employment discrimination and defamation claim against her former employer because of an e-mail sent to others at the company, improperly stating the reason for her termination was credit card fraud.
*Don't Forward E-Mail. As a rule, do not forward e-mail without permission from the original sender. Doing so may violate confidentiality or copyright law. In some cases, forwarded e-mail can be devastating. Take the case of Claire Swire, a British woman who suffered international embarrassment when boyfriend Bradley Chait forwarded an e-mail in which Swire complimented Chait's performance during a night of passion. Forwarded from reader to reader, Swire's e-mail traveled to some 10 million computers in England, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Australia, and the U.S. Worldwide media coverage, including the notorious London tabloids, drove Swire into hiding. Chait and others were disciplined for violating their respective employers' eMail Policies. The ultimate eNightmare, this is a sobering cautionary tale for all e-mail users.
*Write as Though Mom Were Reading. Regardless of the intended reader, instruct employees to write every message as though the big boss, the media, or Mom were looking over the writer's electronic shoulder. People treat e-mail too casually, sending electronic messages they would never record on paper. Don't write anything you wouldn't feel comfortable saying aloud in an elevator crowded with colleagues, customers, and competitors. Need proof that it pays to be polite? Just as the three-star U.S. Marine Corps. general who caused an international stir in February by referring to Japanese officials as "a bunch of wimps" in an e-mail message.
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Sexual Harassment Claims: How to Protect Your Organization from eLiability
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Did you know 27 percent of Fortune 500 companies have defended themselves against sexual harassment claims stemming from inappropriate employee e-mail and Internet use? With increasing frequency, inappropriate and/or offensive e-mail messages and Web postings are surfacing in sexual harassment suits.
E-mail can be subject to discovery and subpoena in lawsuits, and old electronic messages can be admitted into evidence should a sexual harassment claim or other workplace lawsuit go to trial.
Under federal and state law, employers are obligated to take action if sexual harassment is found. That includes the elimination of offensive e-mail messages.
To reduce the likelihood of workplace lawsuits, The ePolicy Institute, http://www.epolicyinstitute.com, recommends employers take the following steps:
*Establish CyberLanguage Guidelines. One of the primary roles an ePolicy plays is giving employees rules to write by. In other words, your e-mail policy should clearly spell out what employees are--and are not--allowed to say via the organization's e-mail system. For example, you may want to incorporate a statement like this: *Employees may not use the organization's e-mail system to harass, intimidate, or threaten others. Employees may not use the organization's e-mail system to engage in illegal activity, including, but not limited to, pornography, terrorism, espionage, theft, gambling, or drug-related activity. Violation of this policy may result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination.*
*Outlaw Jokes. Instruct employees to keep their e-mail joke-free. All too often jokes are offensive or discriminatory in nature. Electronic jokes can easily offend readers and trigger lawsuits. In one high-profile case, Chevron Corp.in 1995 was ordered to pay female employees $2.2 million to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit stemming from inappropriate "joke" e-mail circulated by male employees. The offenders' messages included, among other gems, "Twenty-Five Reasons Why Beer Is Better Than Women."
*Purchase EPLI Insurance. Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) protects employers from workers' claims of discrimination or wrongful termination based on sex, race, age, or disability. It also protects against third-party liability claims filed by customers and other outsiders who are offended by messages carried by the organization's e-mail system or posted to the Web site. Employers seeking to limit the risk of harassment and discrimination lawsuits should combine a zero-tolerance attitude with an effectively written, clearly communicated e-mail policy and an EPLI insurance policy.
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Need help drafting effective ePolicies? Want a training professional to educate your employees about eLiabilties and ePolicy compliance? Looking for an engaging speaker for your next conference or business meeting? Contact nancy@epolicyinstitute.com. Our ePolicy experts offer consulting, training, and speaking services worldwide. http://www.epolicyinstitute.com.
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eDisaster of the Month: US Congress Overwhelmed by Constituent eMail
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E-mail may be the quickest way to deliver a message, but it is far from the best way to receive a response, particularly for wired citizens eager to communicate with Congress. With 80 million e-mail messages a year hitting Congressional in-boxes, Capitol Hill is facing an eCrisis.
According to a newly released Congressional Management Foundation and George Washington University study titled *E-Mail Overload in Congress,* Senators and representatives collectively receive 63,000 e-mails a month. Overwhelmed staffers are slow to respond to e-mail, if at all.
The experts at The ePolicy Institute offer tips to enhance the effectiveness of constituent e-mail:
* Avoid eMob Scenes: Incoming House e-mail grew from 20 million messages in 1998 to 48 million last year. Don't waste time and tax dollars e-mailing officials outside your district. Doing so guarantees messages will be deleted.
* Write Compelling Subject Lines: Use the subject line to alert readers your message is relevant and worth reading. The subject line, "This Constituent Concerned About Tax Plan," is more likely to be read than the generic, "Vote No on Bush Tax Bill."
* Lead with the Good Stuff: House e-mail is growing by 1 million messages a month, leaving staffers little time to read messages word for word. Use your first few sentences to grab the reader's attention and communicate a clear, compelling message.
*Compose Yourself Before Composing Your E-Mail: Angry or upset? Cool off before sending a confrontational message. You're more likely to receive a response to a rational message than an irate, inflammatory rant.
*Lower Your Expectations: Use e-mail to express your opinion, but don't expect a response--at least not a speedy one. Ninety percent of Congressional offices use snail mail to respond to e-mail.
*Put Your Best Foot Forward: Enhance your credibility and increase the chances your e-mail will be read by drafting logical messages with correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Be conversational and polite.
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Truth Is Stranger than Fiction
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A 59-year-old Ohio woman is being investigated for dropping off a computer to be fixed and allegedly asking the repairman to save images of child pornography stored on the hard drive. Quality Computers employees contacted police.
--USA Today, Monday, March 26, 2001
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Leading ePolicy Expert Comes Right to Your Door
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Here's your chance to learn everything you need to know about keeping your organization safe from workplace lawsuits and other costly eLiabilities.
Nancy Flynn, executive director of The ePolicy Institute, author of The ePolicy Handbook, and the leading authority on ePolicy development and implementation, joins
noted Employment Law and CyberLaw experts on May 9, 2001 for a full-day conference on *Employment Law in the Age of eMail and the Internet.* Attend this conference for just $395/person and learn:
--How to control eLiabilities by controlling employees' eContent.
--How to write comprehensive ePolicies that really help control employees' online behavior and reduce eLiabilities.
--How to get managers, supervisors, and staff on board with your ePolicy.
--How to prevent internal security breaches and block outsiders from entering your system.
--How the criminal justice system handles employees who engage in pornography, gambling, and other CyberCrimes on the job.
--How to effectively educate employees about ePrivacy concerns and ePolicy compliance.
--Everything you need to know about developing and implementing effective ePolicies.
**Your $395 Investment Today Could Save You Millions in Legal Bills Tomorrow**
If you can't travel to Columbus, Ohio for the May 9 *Employment Law in the Age of eMail and the Internet Conference,* but want to benefit from all the comprehensive, timely material presented live over the course of the 8-hour conference, WE WILL BRING THE CONFERENCE TO YOU.
For a limited time, The ePolicy Institute is accepting reservations for ePolicy Conference in a Box kits--complete with audio tapes of all sessions, a video of the Conference's opening session, all session handout materials, the ePolicy Institute ePolicy Forms kit, and a copy of The ePolicy Handbook. Don't delay. Reserve your ePolicy Conference in a Box today for just $395 ($345 for ePolicy Institute Members).
If you prefer, we also are accepting pre-conference
orders for the ePolicy Conference in a Box Platinum Package.
For $695, you'll receive audio tapes and written transcripts of all sessions,
a video and written transcript of the Conference's opening session, all session
handout materials, the ePolicy Institute ePolicy Forms Kit, The ePolicy Handbook,
Writing Effective E-Mail,among other manuals.
Pre-order your ePolicy Conference in a Box Platinum Package for $695 ($645 for ePolicy
Institute Members).
To order your ePolicy Conference in a Box Kit, e-mail your request to experts@epolicyinstitute.com. If you are an ePolicy Institute Member or past customer, we'll e-mail your order confirmation as soon as your order is processed. New customers will be contacted for credit card/payment information.
Watch your mail for Conference details and registration information.
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ePolicy Institute eNews Bulletin
March 2001
Editor Nancy Flynn
http://www.epolicyinstitute.com
experts@epolicyinstitute.com
614-451-3200 (phone)
614-451-8726 (fax)
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