 In The News
This section contains news clips and press releases relating to Lynwood Smith. If you are a reporter or writer on a deadline, please contact us to arrange a media interview by clicking here. Alternatively, you can call us at +(001) 416-962-8948.
 Dow Fires 50 After Company E-Mail Probe -- Joins Increasing Number of Concerned Companies
Reprinted from Canada Computes, September 2000 issue
Dow Chemical Company recently fired 50 employees and disciplined 200 others after an internal investigation found that some workers within its Michigan operation had e-mailed pornographic and violent images using company computers. The company joined a small but growing number of businesses that have fired or disciplined its staff members for sending, receiving or storing offensive e-mail messages.
In a prepared press release, the company explained that the "materials discovered included graphic violence and pornography, in violation of Dow’s clearly stated Respect and Responsibility, Code of Business Conduct, and e-mail policies, and potentially Dow’s Anti-Harassment Policy."
Dow’s Michigan Operations unit employs a total of about 7,000 people at its corporate headquarters and manufacturing plant in Midland, Michigan. Worldwide, the company employs about 40,000 and makes hundreds of products, including specialty chemicals and plastics.
Dow is not alone in this employment decision. Last year, The New York Times fired 22 employees for allegedly forwarding potentially offensive e-mails. In another incident, Xerox Corp. also fired 40 workers for spending work time surfing porn sites and shopping sites on the Web.
Dow’s investigation was sparked by an employee complaint in May. According to a company spokesman, Dow does not monitor e-mail on a regular basis but decided to take a "snapshot" of one week’s e-mail usage to understand the extent of the problem. Employees who simply opened the objectionable e-mails and subsequently deleted them were not in trouble. Rather, Dow’s problem was with those employees who downloaded, saved and even distributed the objectionable e-mails.
Marnie Smith, managing partner of Lynwood Smith Inc., a Toronto-based executive recruitment firm, says that companies are increasingly taking action to protect themselves and their staff from workplace violence and harassment issues. E-mail is only the latest battleground.
"These are litigious times and companies — as well as employees — have to protect themselves against potential problems. Many firms are setting out their Internet usage policies in new employee orientation sessions and educating existing staff members about what is permitted and what is not. In addition, more and more companies are integrating their Internet usage policies into their formal employee manuals and involving legal counsel to ensure everything is legally binding."
In Dow’s particular example, employees were notified in March of the company policies, including the prohibition against computer use involving personal and objectionable subject matter.
Vasken Khabayan, a Toronto-based lawyer says there are plenty of things companies and employees can do to protect themselves.
"First, employees have to realize that their employer owns their work computer, the local area network and the company’s Internet access," Khabayan explains. "Since the company pays the bills, it can look inside any e-mail going in and out of the company. Many courts have ruled that employees have no right to privacy and company managers have the right to look inside an employee’s electronic mail box."
So what can employers and employees do to prevent problems? Khabayan says that employers must have a clear policy when it comes to the Internet.
"Define what employees can and can’t do on company time and using the company’s computers. Also, employees should recognize that all correspondence -- e-mail or traditional -- can be used in court against the company or the employee. Even deleted messages have a way of resurfacing in legal cases," explains Khabayan.
"Let’s face it," Khabayan continues, "an e-mail sure looks official if it’s been sent from the company’s servers and has the company domain address all over it. It’s just like a piece of company letterhead."
Another Internet usage policy to consider implementing includes using the company’s firewall to screen out large graphic files from entering employee’s e-mail boxes. The assumption here is that large graphic files -- say, 1 MB or greater -- likely contain pornographic or other illegal images. Obviously, this strategy would not work in a busy graphics studio, but many settings would find this new restriction appropriate, especially if there was a way to over-ride it in special cases.
With so-called recreational surfing on the rise in corporations, some companies are installing specialized software programs that "sniff" the internal network for objectionable material. These tools monitor all network activity, including Internet and intranet usage, Web browsing, print jobs, chat, Telnet, ftp and, of course, e-mails.
While lawyer Khabayan suggests not even giving out your e-mail address to family and friends if you think they are going to abuse it, recruiter Smith suggests this might be excessive.
"In the end," says Smith, "companies are just trying to protect themselves and their employees from trouble. With today’s increasing work demands and longer hours, most organizations recognize employees use a bit of work time to take care of personal business. The key is not to abuse your employer’s trust."
Reprinted with permission from Canada Computes, September 2000 issue
|
