With a detailed workplace policy, checking personal email usage is fair game

In an ideal world, your employees would use the Internet, e-mail, company-supplied cell phones and other electronic equipment for legitimate business only. No online shopping while on the job; no browsing nonwork-related websites for hours at a time; no e-mailing coworkers the latest joke or company gossip; and no texting friends and family on a company cell phone or pager. But we know better. For all the conveniences electronic equipment provides in the modern workplace, it also opens the door to abuse, which is why most employers monitor electronic equipment for inappropriate or excessive personal use.

But how deep can you dig? In most situations, that depends on your electronic communications policy – and the specifics of said policy. As a recent court decision revealed, precise wording matters. In Holmes v. Petrovich Development Co., LLC, an employee sued her employee for discrimination and retaliation. While developing its defense, the employer identified emails the employee sent to her attorney from her work computer using her personal, password-protected email account. Although the employee argued that the emails were off-limits due to attorney-client privilege, details in the employee handbook proved otherwise.

There, in black and white, were the following guidelines: (1) company computers are to be used only for company business; (2) employees are prohibited from accessing personal email on company computers; (3) the company will monitor its computers for compliance with the policy and thus might "inspect all files and messages . . . at any time"; and (4) employees using company computers to create or maintain personal information or messages "have no right of privacy with respect to that information or message."

Due to the explicit and prohibitive workplace policy (which the employee received and reviewed), the court ruled that the emails were not privileged and that the employer was entitled to use them in the case.

Lesson learned: Your employee handbook should include a well-drafted electronic communications policy that informs employees that there will be no expectation of privacy for personal business conducted on company equipment – and that your company may review e-mails, voicemails, web search history and other activity for any legitimate business purpose. The policy should also advise employees that use or misuse of company equipment violates company policy and is subject to disciplinary action. That way, your company is shielded from liability for reasonably reviewing employee communications.

With a detailed workplace policy, checking personal email usage is fair game

Operation "Email cleanup" - Purging the profanity before you hit 'Send'

Got a potty mouth? If you work for Goldman Sachs Group Inc., you’ll need to clean it up and edit out the expletives in your email exchanges.

After an embarrassing slip of the tongue received national attention in recent Congressional hearings, Goldman Sachs is now prohibiting employees from swearing in emails.

For the New York company, this means 34,000 traders, investment bankers and other employees must now avoid a vast vocabulary of dirty words often uttered on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs’ disinfected communications policy will be carried out by screening software, which detects and flags common swear words and acronyms.

Goldman Sachs’ no-swearing policy extends to instant messages and texts from company-issued cellphones and emails. Inappropriate emails could make their way to the compliance department, while others might be blocked completely, depending on the severity of the language.

A Goldman spokeswoman said: "Of course we have policies about the use of appropriate language and we are always looking for ways to ensure that they are enforced." WSJ.com

Goldman Sachs is not the only employer taking a stand against off-color communications. This past June, Citigroup told employees in a memo that "recent headlines involving inappropriate emails are an important reminder to 'think before writing, read before sending'. Citigroup doesn’t enforce any formal discipline, but chronic swearers may be approached by their managers and asked to clean up their language.

Another company concerned about profanity-peppered communications is New York-based media company Bloomberg LP. It claims to have monitored emails for more than 10 years with an application that scans messages for 70 profane words and phrase - in English and several other languages.

What about your company? Do you have a formal policy prohibiting swearing in email communications? Do you worry about looking less professional if employees send emails that contain profanity?

Operation "Email cleanup" - Purging the profanity before you hit 'Send'

Chatty employees more productive than quiet coworkers

Though email and other communication technologies have made office communication more convenient, they may be doing little to improve workers’ productivity. A new study suggests that giving employees more time to chat around the water cooler could actually help them get more done back at their desks.

People who interact with each other in person are more productive than people who rely on electronic forms of communication, according to a recent report by researchers at MIT and New York University.

By outfitting workers in a Rhode Island call center with wearable sensor packs, or “sociometers,” researchers recorded details of individuals’ social interactions throughout the day. What they found was that employees who had more in-person conversations with coworkers tended to be more productive than those who did not.

The same team of researchers conducted a similar study last December that backs these recent findings. The December study examined a tight-knit team at an IT company, finding that face-to-face communication improved worker productivity by about 30 percent.

"The big idea is that what you do on your coffee break and over lunch really matters for productivity," says Sandy Pentland, a professor at MIT's Media Lab, who led the study. "Face-to-face networks matter, and the implications are huge."

Researchers cite two main reasons for the connection between in-person communication and productivity:

1. Face-to-face conversations help employees maintain strong relationships with coworkers, those relationships help workers solve complex problems and complete calls more efficiently.
2. Support networks among coworkers increases overall morale and job satisfaction - two major factors of productivity.

Researchers suggest that giving employees time to interact with each other will “likely bolster information transfer across individuals and departments,” a vital ingredient in organizational success.

"The underlying theme here is that humans are social beings," says Pentland. "Technology pushes us toward the abstract, and away from richer face-to-face communication."

The moral of the story: Encourage employees to interact and work with each other in-person. Improved face-to-face communication could be the key to your business’ success.

Chatty employees more productive than quiet coworkers