The Interweb is a mysterious place, and e-mail, a main method of communication ’cross the nebulous tubes, is a touchy subject. E-mail at work is even touchier, given that companies own the equipment and the bandwidth.
For Dena Bowers, the woman who’s currently suing UVA for her firing over an e-mail containing NAACP documents, issues associated with workplace e-mail came to an ugly head. Attorneys for UVA say Bowers’ e-mail violated state policies that governed UVA employees because she sent the message, critical of UVA’s chartered restructuring, with her professional e-mail “handle” stating her position at the department of human resources. Bowers’ side fires back that though her e-mail included her UVA “handle,” she clarified that she sent the information in her personal capacity and that UVA employees commonly use their work e-mail for personal reasons.
As Dena Bowers discovered, e-mailing at work can be tricky. If you’re a UVA employee, make sure that mass e-mail is "mission related."
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Some have suggested that “e-mail culture” at UVA is more casual than at other companies. UVA does not prohibit personal e-mail and says it doesn’t regularly monitor the e-mail of more than 13,000 employees.
A UVA policy, adopted June 2006, states that e-mails sent to 1,000 recipients or more must be “related to the University’s mission.” A UVA employee, who wished to remain anonymous because of fear of losing her job due to the sensitive nature of the Bowers case, says UVA staff still use work e-mail frequently for personal reasons: “There has been no noticeable change” since Bowers v. UVA.
C-VILLE contacted local employers Crutchfield and SNL Financial to compare policies.
Mark Maynard, Crutchfield’s vice president of human resources, says that their e-mail policies make it clear that work e-mail is not private, but that “casual personal use is acceptable” and a prominent part of the culture of the company, where over 250 are employed.
Michael Latsko, chief administrative officer at SNL, which also employs over 250 in Charlottesville, says the company monitors personal e-mail use and Internet surfing outside “typical business usage range levels.” In other words, personal computer use isn’t prohibited, but employees can’t let it affect their performance. SNL also provides a forum called Public Access, where employees can post personal announcements, as long as they’re doing it outside of work hours.
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