Most people working in offices use and will continue to use computers; these computers are routinely wired for Internet and Email access. Does your company need a policy limiting Email and Internet use to business use only?
Productivity
A major reason to consider limiting employee Net and Email use is, quite simply, money. Newsday recently reported that between seven and ten percent of persons polled admitted that they used the Internet for non-work reasons for at least an hour per day. See, Joshiand, What a Popular Web We Weave, Newsday, Oct. 24, 1999. Another study concluded that "a company with 50 employees accessing the internet an average of three hours per week for non-business related purposes will cost their company about $160,000 a year in lost productivity." See Tompkins, Workplace Web-Surfing, Louisville Courier-Journal, August 25, 1999. A concrete example of electronic time wasting on the company dime: an estimated half of the 27 million downloads of Ken Starr's report and President Clinton's deposition testimony were performed by employees at work. See, Government Computer News, January 11, 1999.
Lawsuits Arising Out Of Improper Email And Internet Use
The informal nature of Email can tempt employees to write stream-of-conscious or inappropriate comments that normally they would never commit to hard copy. The unfortunate results of these thoughtless missives are illustrated by numerous lawsuits, in which disgruntled employees have alleged race discrimination, Daniels v. Worldcom Communications, Inc., 1998 WL 91261 (N.D. Tex. 1998) (employees alleged that coworkers sent racist jokes via Email and that company negligently allowed use of Email system to send jokes); sexual harassment, Shwenn v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 198 WL 166845 (N.D. N.Y. 1998) (plaintiff alleged a sexually hostile work environment which included sexually harassing Emails left on her computer terminal); and defamation, Meloff v. New York Life Ins. Co., 51 F.3d 372 (2d Cir. 1992) (plaintiff sued employer for defamation, claiming that managers had sent an Email to other employees which accused her of fraudulently using her corporate credit card). Many employees do not ultimately prevail on their claims involving discriminatory or defamatory Emails. That, however, is not the point. Rather, what is important is that the Email messages gave the plaintiffs the ammunition to bring viable lawsuits -- at least initially. The employer ends up spending substantial money to defend those lawsuits regardless of whether it ultimately wins or not.
A Union's Potential Right To Use A Company's Email System
The National Labor Relations Board treats computers like any other method of communication. Thus, a company which allows its employees to use the Email system -- for example -- to solicit contributions for a girl scout troop, could be required to allow other employees equal time to use the Email system for pro-union purposes. See E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Co. and Chemical Workers Association, Inc., 311 NLRB 893, 919 (1993). Accordingly, prohibition against employee Emails for personal use means that an employer need not allow employees use of its system for union purposes.
An Employer's Right To Monitor Electronic Communication
Courts have found that where an employer has a policy limiting computer use to official business and notifying employees that electronic communications would be monitored, employees do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the use of their company's Email systems. See, e.g., U.S. v. Simons, 29 F. Supp. 324 (E.D. Va. 1998) (where employer's policy permitted internet use for "official business use," employee did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy with respect to his internet use). See, also, McClaren v. Microsoft Corp., 1999 WL 339015 (Tex. App. 1999) ("the company's interest in preventing inappropriate and unprofessional comments, or even illegal activity, over its e-mail system would outweigh [plaintiff's] claimed privacy interest in those communications); Bohach v. City of Reno, 932 F. Supp. 1232 (D. Nev. 1996) (employees had no reasonable expectation of privacy in messages from computerized paging system that were stored in central computer).
An effective policy should explain that Internet and Email use is for business purposes only; should incorporate policies against discrimination and harassment; and should notify employees that the company reserves the right to monitor Email and Internet use.
Rules regarding computer usage should be modulated with reason. Eliminating all non work-related Email and Net use might be overly draconian. There is, after all, little difference between an employee placing a two-minute telephone call to a spouse and sending a quick outside Email to him or her. The goal of the policy should not be to exclude all Email and Internet use, just those that undermine an employer's financial and legal goals.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. 0Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.