Big Brother is watching your work e-mail

PERHAPS THE SITUATION is not quite Nineteen Eighty-Four, but there is a trend in this age of technology for companies to 'watch over' their staff and their actions: specifically, to screen employee e-mails and even outgoing text messages.

This is a situation that should make you think twice about venting your spleen about your latest meeting with the boss.

Organisations are increasingly implementing screening policies across the board through their human resources (HR) departments. You might question the legitimacy and fairness of this, but companies will argue that such policies are necessary to ensure protection of the company name and image. In light of recent scandals - such as the one involving Comedy Central and intern Andrew McDonald, author of the world-famous blog 'I'm A Comedy Central Intern', firms are becoming wary about how much freedom to give staff when it comes to public discussion of internal company workings.

While Andrew McDonald's musings were amusing and innocent enough in intent, their implications and their huge popularity were more than he and Comedy Central had anticipated.

HR executives stand firm behind company decisions to delve into the world of inter-staff, or even outgoing, e-mails.

'It is a policy designed solely for security reasons,' said one executive. 'It is first and foremost to ensure a company's integrity and protect its intellectual property. If a person is in question, if there is any suspicion of company bad-mouthing or even the sharing of too much information, we need to know about it and control how much is broadcast.'

A top financial securities company that was in the process of letting one of its staff members go monitored her work e-mail before her departure. The idea was to observe anything controversial the employee might have said to or about her colleagues. All her e-mails were forwarded to her boss for screening. As it turned out, her e-mails were filled with expressions of bitterness and resentment. A potentially damaging situation was checked before it could become something more than just an upset employee venting to peers about a decision she did not agree with.