Am I being Paranoid? Who's There???

lnelson

I have an employee who is emailing documents, that I and others are sending to her and another employees via emails, to her own personal computer and also to an unknown recipient. We have a policy regarding company confidentiality and computer equipment. How can I stop this or what can I do?

lorrie

First, you should decide what action you need to take, assuming the worst. (Decide your plan of action, but do it quickly.)

Then her supervisor should speak with her, along with someone from the IT department, and tell her what you know. Give her a chance to explain. If there is no reasonable explanation (and I can't think of any reason for emailing company documents to a personal account, or anyone outside of the company), then you go forward with your plan of action. This can be discipline up to and including termination, if your discipline plan allows for that.

In any case, she should be aware that her emails can and will be monitored, then continue to do so.

HRsage

What does your company policy say? If it seems like she is in violation of the policy (which she probably is) then question her about it and find out who and why she is emailing the info. Then proceed from there.

HR in CA

In your policy do you state that there is no presumption of privacy with e-mail, Internet, etc.? In addition if your policy states that the e-mail is for business use only, then you should discipline the employee per your policy. Also after reading your question I wondered if the employee was sending confidential or propriety information. If so I would again go back to your policies and act accordingly.


Lastly, no I do not think you are being paraniod, just concerned about your company.

Beckie Caskey
Quest Media and Supplies

lnelson

>In your policy do you state that there is no presumption of privacy
>with e-mail, Internet, etc.? In addition if your policy states that
>the e-mail is for business use only, then you should discipline the
>employee per your policy. Also after reading your question I wondered
>if the employee was sending confidential or propriety information. If
>so I would again go back to your policies and act accordingly.
>
>
>Lastly, no I do not think you are being paraniod, just concerned about
>your company.
>
>Beckie Caskey
>Quest Media and Supplies


Our policy states that "Employees are directed that they are not to use the computers for personal business, that all electronic media stored, even temporarily, on such computers remains the property of our company."

System

lnelson, that's a weak policy if it doesn't explicitly state that management has the right to read employees' e-mail and monitor their computer use. You don't want employees to have a reasonable expectation that their e-mail will be private.

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

Don D

On the other hand, I have forwarded company emails. Several of them are stock related, public information, describing the solidity of the company and I sent them to a friend who's a business director, just to impress him with our company. I didn't view this as sending confidential info, since it was not. On another occasion I forward emailed my predecessor with a new company policy just for information. So, I wouldn't automatically judge this as violative in your situation. Depends.

scottorr

First do an investigation. Don't jump to conclusions! You wouldn't want to loose a good emplyee over a misunderstanding. We had a similar situation. One of our employees was sending forms to their personal account and to another person. After our investigation we discovered that the employee was working on an advanced degree and was using a manipulated version of our forms as samples for a presentation. The other person was a classmate who was working on the same project. We simply asked the employee, in the future to let their supervisor know ahead of time.

lnelson

The e-mail was information pertaining to her and another employees working relationship it was addressed to both employees. It asked that we try and work out a resolution between them after a disagreement.

scottorr

I would be concerned. I would still ask her who and why was she sending this info around and remind her of your organization's e-mail policy.

WOCO Frank

The "other person" may not be another person at all. I routinely forward things to my home e-mail, and send it to both my addresses, because they handle attachments with different degrees of success. IOW, there may be a less sinister explanation. OTOH, if the second recipient is "johnnie.cochran@iftheglovedontfit.com", you may have a problem brewing.

lnelson

The issue I am having with this is along with emailing company correspondence to someone? is that the ee is sending items that do not pertain to just her but also another employee and that seems to get into some sort of privacy issue, Right? or Wrong? I am not sure but if I was the other person I would be a little upset about this, my opinion.

scottorr

You do not want one employee to have access to another employees personell info at home. However, still talk to the ee and find why they are transmitting this information. If it is not for legitimate reasons (I'm guessing this is not the case) you will want to follow up with disciplinary action. Stress to the ee that this is a very serious matter.

Don D

I think you're barking up the wrong tree with the confidentiality of personal information angle. Talking about people over the internet is really no different from talking about people in the grocery store checkout line. What you have is a violation of your computer usage policy, not someone releasing confidential information. She could write a letter to the editor using the same comments or she could call it in to a radio talk show. Deal with the computer misuse issue.

scottorr

I think Don D is right on the money with this one. Remember policies are there for a reason.