Electronic disasters can ruin businesses, sink careers, send stock prices plummeting, and create public relations nightmares.
Don't let an eDisaster catch you off guard. For responsible organizations operating in the age of electronic communication and commerce, a written ePolicy is an essential business tool.
An ePolicy that is well-written and effectively communicated to all employees is one of the best ways for employers to protect themselves from workplace lawsuits and other risks associated with the inappropriate use of corporate software, eMail, and Internet systems.
Inappropriate eMail Can Trigger Workplace Lawsuits & Sexual Harassment Claims
- Wrongful Termination:
If a former employee subpoenas company eMail in the course of a wrongful termination lawsuit, your organization could face a lengthy and expensive search for back-up tapes of eMail messages. In one case, a Fortune 500 company was ordered by a court to turn over any eMail that mentioned the name of a former employee who was suing the company for improper termination. With no policy in place for purging eMail, the company faced the prospect of searching more than 20,000 back-up tapes, containing millions of messages, at a cost of $1,000 per tape. Total potential cost for that electronic search: $20 million.
- Sexual Harassment:
Employee misuse
of corporate eMail can result in six-figure litigation
costs and million-dollar legal settlements. In one
high-profile case, Chevron Corp. in 1995 was ordered
to pay female employees $2.2 million to settle a sexual harassment
lawsuit stemming from inappropriate eMail circulated by male employees.
The offenders' eMail messages included, among other gems, 25 Reasons
Why Beer is Better Than Women.
Cyberslackers Cost Employers Big Bucks & Create PR Nightmares
- Lost Productivity:
US business lost $500 million in workplace productivity in 1999, when Congress released the Starr Report and President Clinton's video deposition over the Internet. Some 13.5 million workers slacked off and logged on to see what the President, Monica Lewinsky, and independent counsel Kenneth Starr had to say about the relationship between the commander in chief and the intern.
- Lost Productivity:
Firefighters in Columbus, Ohio triggered an internal investigation, media sensation, and public uproar when a routine scan of on-the-job Internet surfing revealed that fire division headquarters' staff were visiting as many as 8,000 pornographic sites a day.
- PR Headaches:
A Federal Communications Commission (FCC) employee inadvertently sent a dirty joke entitled Nuns in Heaven to 6,000 journalists and government officials on the agency's group eMail list. This employee's lapse in judgment and electronic mistake resulted in negative publicity and national embarrassment for the FCC.
Bad eMail Creates Human Resources Nightmares
- Wasted Talent:
Xerox fired more than 40 employees in 1999 for idling away up to eight hours a day on X-rated sites. The downloading of porn videos was so pervasive, it actually choked Xerox's computer network and prevented employees from sending and receiving legitimate eMail.
- Wasted Talent:
Dow Chemical fired 64 workers and disciplined 230 more in 2000 for violating the company's policies against pornographic eMail.
- Wasted Talent:
The New York Times Company fired nearly two dozen employees and reprimanded another 20 workers for sending and/or receiving eMails that included sexual images and offensive jokes.
Software Piracy Can Sink Your Corporate Ship
- Lost Revenues:
In the US, one in four business software applications is illegally copied, or pirated, resulting in $3.2 billion in lost revenue for software manufacturers.
- Fines and Imprisonment:
Get caught with pirated software and you'll face a $150,000 fine for each copyright infringed, a prison term of up to five years, public embarrassment, and negative publicity. One US novelty and gift company, Oriental Trading, paid $525,000 to settle claims against it for operating unlicensed software on its system.
Computer Crime & Security Breaches Threaten Business
- Sabotage & Wasted Computer Resources:
Lockheed Martin's eMail system crashed for six hours after an employee sent 60,000 coworkers a personal eMail with a request for an electronic receipt. The defense contractor, which posts 40 million eMails monthly, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars thanks to the resulting system crash. A Microsoft rescue squad was flown in to repair the damage and ensure that a similar time bomb would never again detonate. The employee responsible for Lockheed Martin's eDisaster was fired for sabotage.
- Internal & External Security Breaches:
According to the 1999 Computer Security Institute/FBI Computer Crime Security Survey, US business and institutions lost more than $100 million to computer security breaches in 1999.
ePolicies Help Reduce Employers' eRisks & Legal Liabilities
Want to reduce electronic risks in the workplace? Take the initiative. Don't wait for eDisaster to strike. Develop and implement written eMail, Internet, and software usage policies that clearly spell out the organization's expected standards of electronic behavior, along with privacy and monitoring policies.
While no workplace ever can be 100% safe from electronic risks, a written ePolicy coupled with a comprehensive employee education program can help for-profit businesses and not-for-profit entities control eRisks, insulate themselves from many workplace claims, increase productivity, and protect corporate assets.
Excerpted from The ePolicy Handbook by Nancy Flynn, 2001.
Permission to reprint granted, provided the material is reproduced in its
entirety and www.epolicyinstitute.com is cited as the source.
Click here to read about The ePolicy Handbook.
