Tara Weiss 07.10.08, 3:07 PM ET
Two Bear Stearns executives learned a hard lesson this week: If you’re going to say something inappropriate, don’t write it in an e-mail.
An online exchange between fund managers Matthew Tannin and Ralph Cioffi questioned the performance of certain funds in which they were investing clients’ money. But their public comments told a different story, and now those e-mails are the smoking gun in the civil and criminal cases against them. If convicted of conspiracy and securities fraud, the two could face jail time and heavy fines.
Will employees ever learn that anything they write in an e-mail can and will be used against them?
“This stuff is obtainable, and it’s difficult to deny once it’s printed out,” says Josh Bowers, a labor lawyer in Washington, D.C.
Of course, we’re not encouraging you to behave illegally offline, either. But the risk of getting caught online is high. Employees send hundreds of e-mails daily from their work computer, and experts say they too often broach subjects that should be avoided. The most common? Sex.
It’s an important message: Nothing written from your work computer–even if it was sent from a personal e-mail address–is private. Most employee handbooks include an electronic communications policy stating that any correspondence sent from an employer-owned computer belongs to the company. Before starting a job, most companies require new employees to sign the handbook and return it to human resources to prove that they’ve read and agree with it.
And technology allows employers (and prosecutors) to retain messages sent years ago. Some employers periodically scan employees’ e-mail for certain key words, like profanities, or other vocabulary that could denote violence or harassment.
Labor lawyer Patrick Boyd encourages all employees to implement what he dubs “the grandmother test.” If a topic is too embarrassing to share with your grandmother…
