When City boy Harry Fildes, employed by property consultancy GL Hearn, made salacious remarks about his ex-girlfriend to Sebastian Marsh as a prospective date over the office email, it was accidentally copied to the lady in question. According to the Daily Mail: “The exchange has since spread rapidly across the internet, being read by thousands and even handed around by amused customers at The Hurlingham pub in Wandsworth, where Mr Marsh first bumped into the girl in question.” [1]
So easy to send
Email disasters are nothing new. A survey in August 2010 revealed that one in 20 people have been disciplined or even fired because of email ‘mistakes’. One in five admitted sending an inappropriate email in the heat of the moment, while one in three (31%) said they have hit ‘reply all’ instead of ‘reply’ by mistake. And more than one in 10 (13%) have mistakenly sent an email insulting a colleague to the person they are insulting.[2]
There is even a book about them by Chas Newkey-Burken which entices prospective purchasers with: “Email is convenient but highly dangerous. With an ill-considered click of the mouse, you can humiliate yourself in front of millions, lose your job or even end up in court. Great Email Disasters brings together over 100 of the funniest, scariest and weirdest stories of inbox ignominy. Meet the sheepish stars of the world wide web.[3]
When the policy is not enough
Although GL Hearn had an email policy, Fildes did not appear to have read it. The firm issued the following statement: “GL Hearn upholds the highest levels of professional conduct at all times. We have an email policy in place which was recently breached by a member of staff…we have addressed the matter with the member of staff and taken steps within the business to prevent a future infringement of our email policy.”
Mr Marsh’s employers were equally unable to prevent him from sending the exchange to all his friends from his work address and have had to ‘investigate’ the situation. A spokesman said “Mr Marsh is off work while we investigate the situation. I have seen the email exchange that originates from Miller to him in his personal capacity. We don’t condone the behaviour of that sort of nature. In line with most organisations we would expect people to be professional and have integrity all of the time.”
Potential harm
Denise Owusu-Ansah a solicitor at Bates Wells and Braithwaite spoke to The People Bulletin about the possible consequences for organisations when a employee misuses their email account. “The potential for employees to damage their employer’s reputation as a result of internal e-mails escaping into the public domain remains a cause of concern for employers. Aside from the obvious embarrassment such email disasters can cause an organisation, they may also leave employers vulnerable to defamation, discrimination and harassment claims, where an employee sends abusive or inappropriate messages from a work e-mail account. Such conduct could warrant disciplinary action, potentially including dismissal. Whether an employer can take such action will depend, at least in part, on whether it has a clear, robust and well-publicised policy dealing with email misuse, which is applied to staff fairly and consistently. As well as protecting against any potential e-mail misuse, having a suitable policy in place may also help an employer demonstrate in the event of a claim that it took reasonable practical steps to prevent discrimination or harassment taking place in the workplace.”
Reminders to staff
So how can employers remind users that the company has a binding email policy? Most email disasters occur because the employee has more often than not totally forgotten the organisation has one at all. Here are some basic tips to ensure that employees are more than vaguely aware of its existence.[4]
- Hand out printed copies of the policy, publish it on your intranet and ensure it is included in all staff handbooks.
- Make sure the email policy is included in all new starter information packs.
- Include the important elements of the policy in the employment contract so that there is a signature that the employee has read and understood them. These should cover the banning of defamatory, sexual and racist remarks in email and it should be clear that breach of the rules can lead to termination of employment.
- Organise email training courses or webinars to explain the email risks to user and why the policy is so important.
- Send an email reminder about the policy’s key points from time to time!
[1] www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1371253/Saucy-emails-Harry-Fildes-Sebastian-Marsh-hot-public-property.html
[2] www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/survey-reveals-email-gaffes-at-work-2059637.html
[3] www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Email-Disasters-Chas-Newkey-Burden/dp/1844544109
[4] Summarised from www.emailreplies.com/Email_policy.html