Email Monitoring Policy

We live in a very wired world. We are virtually available around the clock, through text-based communication such as email, instant messaging and text messaging. Add phone calls, VoIP and voicemail to the mix and there is little time where we are unreachable - unless we choose to make ourselves invisible or unavailable.

As such, people have become rather complacent in their communication habits. This includes personal communication of all forms in the workplace. In the past, people would make their personal phone calls on their lunch hour or during a break – calling for personal appointments, checking in with family or the childcare provider, etc. Today, many employees maintain ongoing personal connections throughout the workday by having email, instant messaging and social networking clients open at all times.

In spite of being at work, a surprising number of people seem to expect their personal communications to remain private. The question arises as to whether or not the employer has the right to monitor such communications. A commonly heard concern is can employers monitor email? The answer to this is, yes, they can – and it's legal. The technology is in place and a multitude of services and products are available to help them do so.

Federal law, via the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), outlines the provisions under which companies can monitor employee email. The three critical provisions are that consent has been given by one of the parties, the company is monitoring to protect itself and/or there are legitimate business reasons to monitor employee email. State laws are less defined in regards to email monitoring and employees may try to use those to challenge federal-based sanctions.

In order to ensure clarity and understanding on all sides, it is in the employer's best interest to establish a company email monitoring policy. This policy must be in the hands of all new hires and should be distributed and updated regularly for existing employees. Among other items, email monitoring policy guidelines should outline the purpose of the monitoring (i.e., to preserve the corporate image), the scope of monitoring (i.e., incoming and outgoing messages, all messages taking place on company equipment, etc.) and should be specific as to what is and is not acceptable regarding email communication (i.e., how much personal use is deemed allowable, what types of messages are prohibited-such as those which are sexual in nature, harassing, racist, etc.).

Employees would be well-served to expect that there will be email monitoring at work and to conduct themselves accordingly. Never assume that, because an email was never sent, it was never read. Never assume that a deleted email cannot be retrieved. Limit communication of a personal nature on employer equipment and servers. Never assume that jokes or sarcastic remarks will be correctly interpreted by the recipient or by those who monitor employee email. The workplace is where one is compensated for their productivity and quality of their work. Neither of these should be compromised by spending time on personal communication that effectively disrespects the employer.