W hat's a boss to do? You get an e-mail meant for someone
else and open it. It's from one employee to another and it goes
on and on about what a jerk you are. Do you pretend you never read
it or sack the sender?
If you fire, you're within your rights, says Russell
Gardner, a labor and employment attorney at Piper, Marbury, Rudnick
& Wolfe in Baltimore: "If it got to you by mistake, and
you opened it, then you don't have to continue to employ this
person."
Courts have ruled that a corporate e-mail system is not private
and companies can monitor e-mail, says Dave McClure, executive
director of the US Internet Industry Association.
Content Continues Below
And if you do fire, don't tell the person via e-mail. No
pink mail, please.
Ellen Paris is a Washington, DC, writer and former Forbes
magazine staff writer.
Originally published in the May 2000 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine