Political Views in the Workplace

ladys · February 2005

I having am having a problem with employees using the company's e-mail system to distribute messages that could be view by some as discriminatory, "forcing your political views" on others, etc. I could even go so far as to say it could be viewed as a form of harressment. I need to get a brief message out to all employees letting them know that this is not allowed, but I also wanted to be able to use some legal terms and touch of the liability this places on a company when this type of communication is allowed. Can anyone help me out with this....ASAP. Thanks

Leslie · February 2005

Brief is tough, I have a whole policy for this sort of thing. Here's a paragraph from it:

The Internet should not be used for personal gain or advancement of individual views. Solicitation of non-company business or use of the Internet for personal gain, such as commercial business, is strictly prohibited. Use of the Internet must not disrupt the operation of the company’s network or the networks of other users. It must not interfere with the employee’s productivity.

ladys · February 2005

Thank you Leslie for responding. I was thinking along those lines, and you have helped to confirm this for me. Thanks again.

TN HR · February 2005

Welcome to the forum. You don't need legal terms and fancy verbiage in order to publish an effective policy. The trick here will be implementing, communicating and enforcing it.

You can get a lot of ideas from folks on this forum on who, what, when and where but remember that, ultimately, you need a policy that will work for you and your company. My best advice on this is to keep it simple. The last thing any ee needs is another policy with such much verbiage and legalese that you need a judicial opinion to understand it.

Good luck.

Gene

P.S. I work in a food processing and manufacturing environment. Our employees don't give a crap about the company's exposure. They do, however, understand the concept that it's their butt that's exposed if they are caught violating our computer use policy.

ladys · February 2005

Hi Gene,
Thanks for responding so quickly and this is my first time using the forum. I totally agree when you said employees just don't care about company exposure, but when it is them, that's a different story. Thanks for the info.

ladys

pork1 · February 2005

ladys: First welcome to the Forum; how about hostile working environment, discrimination, harassment of any kind can not be allowed to fester on the company computer assets. When a company policy is "zero tolerance for Harassment and discrimination" as published by your policy and procedures manual or a simple employee handbook, then it is destroyed when the policy is one thing but your companies' actual practice is another. Our Director of Information Systems is our head of the computer communications linkage and I make sure he is on board with the policing of the internet. HR is not the policeman and I refuse to be pushed into that role. I advise and influence with legal information on decision making, but you will never find me pulling the trigger to discipline, that is supervisor and manager roles and "I ARE NOT IT"! I recommend you, likewise, move your HR position out of the line of fire and you will find your HR "world of work" to be more peaceful!

PORK

ladys · February 2005

Hi PORK,

Thanks for responding. After reading all the responses, I have a much better idea on how to proceed. I have already contacted my IT Director to meet so that we can come up with something. Thanks again.

ladys

Political Views in the Workplace

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