2/26/03
Your company's email policy is appropriate.
This statement will always be indisputable when you're using your company's computer coupled with their server to send messages of any kind. And regardless of the fact than many companies have resorted to Gestapo-like tactics in monitoring employee use of email, it's still their stuff and they have every right to supervise the way you're using it.
My personal belief is that every email that I write from work is being read by someone I work with (or work near). This must not bother me because I use company email to communicate some outrageously personal things. The ugly part is I think I could make a pretty good guess as to which of my co-worker(s) read employee email where I work. They carry the heavy burden of dredging through a huge number of messages that must get flagged by monitoring software everyday. I just wonder how they keep a straight face when they pass me in the hall after reading about me complain to my wife that I'm constipated and the boil on my back doesn't seem to be healing.
I wonder if "constipated" is a word that will prompt our email software to flag this message as being questionable?
I am, in some ways, an intensely private person. I know what you're thinking, a guy with a Web site that bears his own name is "intensely private"? You're not buying it and, to some extent, you have a point. But, believe it or not, I value my privacy a great deal (I don't tell you everything, you know). So then, why don't I have a problem with people reading my email? Because I agree with the policy. Lord knows the kind of things that pour out of any given workplace's email server each day. In our highly litigious and paranoid work world, knowing what employees are spraying all over the place, while using the company hose to do it with, just makes sense.
I'm never very good at supporting my side of any argument. But I'm confident that my position here is pretty stable. I'd love to hear from you if you feel that you should be able to send email from your company without concerns that what you write will be read by someone other than your intended recipient. I don't think the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law thing applies here. You know, the "If I write a love note on my own time, on my own paper but I use a company owned pencil, does that make the note company property?" question.
I do worry, though. I know that I could potentially be fired for writing personal emails from work. If my company wants to get rid of me, that's one of many transgressions they could use to avoid any calls from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (I bet you that's a flag for our software). However, one of the reasons I like where I work is the fairly hands-off approach to company email.
I suppose it boils down to respect. I respect my company enough not to send spam promoting my black market Viagra business. They respect me enough to know that I'll do the best job I can for them each day and avoid hassling me about the ten minutes, or so, set aside to send one or two occasionally inflammatory emails to friends and family.
That doesn't mean that this email will not be the straw that broke the camel's back.
You might want to avoid calling me this evening. I'll be busy updating my resume.