Stephen O'Connor, SPHR, is senior director of Professional Search Services for the MHA Service Corporation, Lansing, and can be e-mailed at soconnor@mha.org

Staff Matters Newsletter May/June 1999
E-mails from Hell: Don’t Get Burned
By Steve O'Connor

There’s an e-mail joke that’s been making the rounds on the Internet lately. It’s about a businessman from Wisconsin who went on a trip to Louisiana. Upon his arrival, he immediately plugged in his laptop and sent a short e-mail to his wife, who was joining him the next day. In his hurry, he mistyped one letter in the address. The e-mail ended up going to a woman in Duluth whose husband had been buried that very same day. She took one look at the e-mail and fainted. It read, "Arrived safely and everything is prepared for your arrival tomorrow. By the way, it sure is hot down here!"

Electronic mail, when used properly, is a wonderfully immediate and inexpensive way to communicate. It can also be a disaster if misused. A couple of years ago an e-mail message formed the basis for a court action claiming a Title VII violation on hostile work environment and racial bias. An article appeared recently in You and the Law, published by the National Institute of Business Management in McLean, Virginia, that outlined the case. A racist message was sent over a company’s internal e-mail system. The originators of the e-mail were never identified; however, two African-American employees filed a complaint against the company with the New York City Commission on Human Rights and then filed an action in federal district court claiming that the employer created a hostile work environment and violated Title VII’s prohibitions against race bias. The federal district court ruled that there was a basis for a bias claim, solely on the content of the e-mail message.

E-mail’s growing popularity and unmonitored use is putting employers at risk. E-mail messages are not the personal property of the employee who generates them, and therefore, workers have no right to privacy regarding them. The National Institute of Business Management recommends that employers monitor employees’ e-mail messages for evidence of discriminatory material.

In addition to the liability exposure for hostile work environment and discrimination, there are other misuses of e-mail. A recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, by Alex Markels, titled Managers Aren’t Always Able to Get the Right Message Across with E-mail highlighted some of the common e-mail abuses to avoid:

Hiding behind the terminal — Don’t use e-mail for performance reviews, disciplinary actions or other touchy matters. It’s worse than breaking-up over the phone — some things you have to do in person.
Forgetting it’s in writing — The informality of e-mail is part of its convenience. But it is a permanent record of a written communication — often much more easily retrieved than an ancient memo. Just because you’ve forgotten about it doesn’t mean you won’t see it again.
Flaming — Spontaneity is another benefit of e-mail but you should watch the tone of an e-mail message as closely as you would a written memo. Sarcasm, for example, can be devastating when it is glowing on the screen.
You’re the employer. You have a right to see the e-mail your employees are sending. It’s your liability exposure. You’re also the manager and you have an obligation to your employees to communicate with them as people, not as e-mail addresses. Be careful when you’re typing those e-mail addresses, too. Nobody wants to get an e-mail from hell.