CLRM Alerts
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Should You Read Employees' E-Mail?

Ignorance is not necessarily bliss. Just survey your e-mail inbox, and you will quickly realize that people write in e-mail the kinds of things they would never say in person--and in the workplace, employees’ e-mail writings may give rise to liability on the part of their employer. Various workplace torts and legal claims (e.g. racial or sexual harassment) may be and have been asserted against employers based on conduct occurring only in cyberspace. Employers should consider some degree of monitoring to ensure the appropriate use of e-mail. Monitoring of employee e-mail can, under most circumstances, be done without invading any legally protectible privacy interest of the employee if some simple guidelines are followed:

Communicate your policy to employees. Employees must be informed (1) that the employer provides e-mail for its business purposes, (2) that it is subject to monitoring from time to time for appropriate business reasons, and (3) that the same standards of behavior, work rules, and disciplinary policies that relate to verbal conduct in the workplace will be applied to e-mail communications as well. (You may be able to create a message that pops up on the screen every time the employee logs in.)

• Be reasonable. The purpose of monitoring really is to make sure business interests are protected, not to find out employees’ plans for the weekend.
  
  
• Keep personal information quiet. What you find in employees’ e-mail should be communicated, if at all, only to the extent absolutely necessary to protect the company’s business interests.
  

Cook, Little, Rosenblatt & Manson ALERTS are produced periodically as a service of Cook, Little, Rosenblatt & Manson, p.l.l.c. and are intended to highlight emerging legal issues affecting our clients and friends. It is, of course, no substitute for specific legal advice.

Back to Alerts Topics Listing