Employee's E-Mail in the Year Term Paper

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 1326 words ( 4 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 1+

Page 1 of 4

One study by the ePolicy Institute found that 85% of employees admit to recreational surfing at work and seventy percent of employees admitted to receiving or sending adult-oriented personal e-mails at work, while 60% admitted to exchanging e-mail that could be considered racist, sexist or otherwise "politically incorrect" (Griffaton pp). In fact most traffic to Internet pornographic sites occurs during regular business hours, probably because Internet connections usually are faster in the workplace (Griffaton pp). Companies have taken note of these statistics and have adopted e-mail and Internet usage policies that contain provisions for continuous or random monitoring of usage (Griffaton pp).

The ePolicy Institute study reports that 77% of employers monitor employees' e-mail and Internet use, in fact, 10% of workers with e-mail and Internet access, roughly 14 million people, are under continuous online surveillance (Griffaton pp). Approximately two thirds of employers have disciplined or terminated employees for violating electronic usage policies (Griffaton pp). Generally, employers monitor employees' e-mail because they wish to maintain their professional reputation and image, and also are concerned with employee productivity and business efficiency, since "cyberslacking accounts for 30 to 40% of lost worker productivity" (Griffaton pp). Therefore, monitoring assists employers in preventing and discouraging sexual or other illegal workplace harassment, defamation, copyright violations from the illegal downloading of software, music and movies, and the deliberate or inadvertent disclosure of trade secrets and other confidential information (Griffaton pp). According to the ePolicy Institute study, 68% of employers that monitor cite legal liability as their primary reason (Griffaton pp).

No federal or state statute currently prohibits employers from monitoring their electronic workplace, and although the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act and similar state laws provide some limitations, these limitations can be overcome in the workplace through various exceptions in the statutes (Griffaton pp). The federal act prohibits the interception of electronic communications such as e-mail and defines "interception" to mean the "contemporaneous acquisition of the communication," so an interception takes place only when an individual sends an e-mail and a third party is able to obtain a copy of the transmission at the time it is sent (Griffaton pp). In reality, employees have little protection from the monitoring of their workplace electronic communications, for employers can freely obtain copies of e-mails from a network computer or the employee's hard drive without violating the act, and even when an employer intercepts electronic communications, monitoring is permitted when done in the "ordinary course of business" or when the employee has "consented" to it (Griffaton pp).

Stuck Writing Your "Employee's E-Mail in the Year" Term Paper?

View All Our Example Employee's E-Mail in the Year Term Paper

Have A Custom Example Essay Written

Moreover, few states even require that employers notify their employees of monitoring (Griffaton pp). Although most employers tell their employees that they are being monitored, many employees let their guards down and find themselves the object of disciplinary action (McEvoy pp).

Given the above statistics, employers really have no choice but to monitor their employees' e-mail. E-mail sent from and received in a workplace is not private in the same sense as receiving a letter at home by postal delivery. The computer is owned by the company, and the company pays for Internet access for the purpose of doing business, therefore, e-emails should pertain to business and should be considered by any employee as company property.

Works.....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Employee's E-Mail In The Year" (2005, August 05) Retrieved May 20, 2025, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/employee-e-mail-year-67053

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Employee's E-Mail In The Year" 05 August 2005. Web.20 May. 2025. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/employee-e-mail-year-67053>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Employee's E-Mail In The Year", 05 August 2005, Accessed.20 May. 2025,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/employee-e-mail-year-67053
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example