Could Your Texting Get You In Legal Hot Water at Work?

"Never put anything in a e-mail message you wouldn't want read in front of 12 lawyers."

That's the best advice I've ever been given by a lawyer, and I pass it along as often as I can. The reason is this: lawyers love e-mails when they prepare a lawsuit for sexual harassment or labor rules violations. The same lawyer who told me that little gem also told me that lawyers say e-mail is the "gift that keeps on giving."

It seems so. Recently I visited a lawyer friend who had boxes and boxes of stuff being delivered to his office. He told me they were all e-mails from several years ago involving a case he was working on. He then told me that was just a drop in the bucket -- many more boxes would be delivered throughout the week.

As you may or may not understand, e-mail doesn't go away. It hangs around longer than cockroaches. And, even though you may think you've killed an e-mail, you haven't. Some tech-savvy lawyer will always be able to retrieve it.

The reason I bring up this message again is that the legal scope of what employers and/or lawyers will investigate regarding employee communications has widened.

According to the National Law Journal, "textual harassment" claims are on the rise.

"Texting may seem to users as ephemeral — and hard to trace — as a phone conversation. But the messages leave behind an electronic record, and for lawyers, those records are increasingly being used to bolster a variety of claims, particularly in the workplace. For employers, that means a growing source of liability as business-related texting continues to proliferate," the story says.

It goes on to further say:

"The most prominent cases, thus far, have involved male bosses who have sent scandalous texts to female employees, asking them out on dates or promising promotions in exchange for sexual favors. In litigation, texts have become even more potent than e-mail, employment lawyers say, as texters tend to be more casual with their language. Texts can also serve plaintiffs by helping prove that they have been at a particular place at a particular time.

"Certainly what we're seeing is just rather unfathomable....You'd think that people would know that this is something that they shouldn't do, but they seem to be doing it anyway," said Danielle Urban, an attorney in the Denver office of Atlanta's Fisher & Phillips who is currently defending two employers in separate textual harassment lawsuits. They involve lower-level managers allegedly texting photos of their genitalia to female subordinates. "I don't know what it is about texting," Urban said. "But it's really bringing out the worst in people."

So, consider this your warning. In this tough economy, the last thing you need is for your employer to fire you for such behavior. Keep your texting and e-mailing so clean that 12 lawyers would be bored to death.

What other mistakes do people make regarding electronic communication at work?

Don't Kid Yourself: Your Private E-mail May Be Anything But When You're at Work

We've heard the warnings time and again: What you write in an e-mail is subject to your employer not only reviewing it -- but firing you if it is believed you violated company policy.

But let's get real: While at work, many of us still send our friends e-mails about where to meet for dinner, we still send that dirty joke to our significant other and we still e-mail our children to tell them that their grades are slipping and they better get on the ball. We tell a co-worker how pissed we are that our boss is a jerk.

But how would you feel if you used your private e-mail account at work -- and the employer still nosed around in it?

That's at the heart of the case one man has filed against his former employer, claiming that the company got ahold of his private e-mails, which were to his lawyers discussing pending legal action against his employer.

Laws about e-mail are still a bit fuzzy as they are being debated in board rooms and court rooms around the country.

Does an employee have the right to privacy more than a company has the right to monitor e-mail that affects them legally?

As the lawyers wrangle it out, it might be a good idea to remember that until the dust settles you should follow the best advice I was ever given by a top technology lawyer: Never put anything in an e-mail that you wouldn't want displayed before 12 lawyers in a court of law.

Just a final note here: I'm now on Alltop, which has all the top stories updated every 10 minutes. Have a great weekend.




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Proper E-mail Use Critical to Career Success

Bill Lampton, Ph.D., president of Championship Communication, has served as a source for me many times when it comes to understanding how we can better communicate with one another at work. Recently, I asked him to discuss his newest efforts to teach us all how to be better e-mail communicators.

It's obvious that e-mail is here to stay, yet you say few companies really educate workers about how and why to use it. Is that the only reason that e-mail has gotten so out of control?
No, there are other reasons. We can’t leave the training up to companies alone. Just as parents need to define appropriate etiquette for dining and dating, they should tell their children that their e-mail habits create immediate impressions, too. Then parents can educate them specifically about what to avoid and what to do. Likewise, schools — including colleges and universities — should incorporate e-mail training into their courses.

Communication consultants carry a responsibility in this arena as well. For example, when I direct my all-day seminar on “Business Writing That Works,” I devote the last hour to e-mail guidelines. Usually this segment becomes the liveliest and most beneficial part of the day.

Fortunately, newspaper columnists — including you — write about e-mail protocol regularly. You’ll reach people missed by structured training sessions.

You give us rules for using e-mail such as making sure you use proper grammar and spelling, never writing an e-mail when you're angry and don't try to be funny. But does it really matter if our e-mails don't follow these rules? Why?
Yes, because failing to follow these standards will prevent us from:
• making a favorable impression
• becoming “top of mind” for raises and promotions
• selling to top-caliber customers
• reducing workplace confusion
• avoiding preventable conflicts
• maintaining morale during special challenges, like downsizing, when clarity
and conveying the right mood are essential
• enjoying the level of credibility we aspire to
• responding satisfactorily to disgruntled customers

OK, now tell us what is your most personal pet peeve with e-mails.
My decision on that is easy. Every day, I become impatient with “e-mail overkill.” Just as blabbermouths annoy me with their spoken waterfall of words, e-mailers
who don’t know when to stop get on my nerves.

For example, let’s say someone e-mails you, Anita, commending you for an article you wrote. Courteously, you reply. However, you didn’t mean to initiate daily correspondence. Next thing you know, you’re bombarded with a barrage of jokes (most of which you have seen before), personal histories, and questions about your family, hobbies, and more. Genuine professionals need to remember that “less is more” in
e-mailing. Consider: We have access to someone’s mailing address, yet we don’t send three, four, or five letters daily. We should use the same good judgment when we turn to the computer.

I have observed that the same people who used to flood our in-baskets with reams of paper memoranda now blitz our screens with repetitive e-mails. They tempt me to respond, “I understood you the first time.”

Are there instances where e-mail should never be used?
Definitely:
• When the topic is confidential (salary, grievances, reprimands)
• When only a face-to-face conversation can resolve tensions
• When you want to assure that you convey both content and intent accurately
• When it’s time for you to become more visible as a caring supervisor
• When the intended recipient works in the adjoining cubicle
(An exception: When both of you need a written record of the
communication.)

Finally, what's the best way to sign off on an e-mail?
Sign off with a word or phrase that conveys friendliness without
sounding flippant.

Avoid, except with very close friends or family:
• “Cheers”
• “CYA” (Internet slang for “See you”) and similar e-mail shorthand
• Humor — “You da best, you da most”
• “Cordially” or “I remain yours sincerely” and other obsolete terms
• “Warmly,” “Your greatest admirer” and other expressions that could become
misinterpreted as romantic or at least flirty
• Any signoff that includes an exclamation point

Select a close that’s business-like yet not gushy

• “Best”
• “My best”
• “All the best”
• “Best regards”
• “Sincerely”




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