7 Ways Your E-mail Can Get You Fired

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I agree with the above statement YET... The majority of people out there do take some personal time from work. That doesn't mean that you are not getting your work done. It merely means that you are unwinding for about 3-5 minutes or so between longer 2 hour spurts of work. I believe that is normal for the human brain otherwise employees are that much less productive at work. People are not machines and even a computer requires a period to process information in the same way as a human being unwinds. The real issue is making sure that employees are respecting the company that they work for and valuing their job in general enough to complete the tasks that lie at hand. Using a company account for personal correspondence, using the company phone for personal calls and using company stationary for personal correspondence is unacceptable BUT the employer SHOULD NOT terminate the employee without fair warning to improve behavior. Oftentimes, employees do not realize what they are doing as they do these things because of the aura of familiarity with the job itself. Many employees will treat their jobs as if they are their second homes. I believe that everyone should be given a second chance to improve a behavior if it is something minor such as using some company resources for personal use. It all depends on the frequency of the behavior and the employee's ability to eradicate the behavior and the employee's job performance in general. Keep in mind that many salaried employees put in extra time at their jobs to complete their tasks for their employers and never inform their employers of this very simple fact. No company should fire a productive employee in this economy for a minor infraction such as this when the CEO's of major corporations are guilty of far worse. The people at the top need to set an example for the people at the bottom.

x of IL 7:54AM May 19, 2011

When you see everyone else getting away with breaking all sorts of rules and not getting into trouble much less fired. Sometimes you think you would be the last one to get caught being that you're always working. It only took one time one email, the biggest mistake I did. i send a funny joke to management.
Everyone that surrounded me was either on personal phone calls, emailing on company property; texting or on facebook on company time.
How does 90% of the company get away with breaking rules (email) and don't get fired?

chel of TX 6:02PM April 25, 2011

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best weight loss of 3:38AM March 28, 2010

Employers are taking time from employee's home-lives? We chose the careers we're in and accepted the salaries we make. If you don't want a salary position and the expectations that come with them, then don't take the job. I don't see you complaining about the weeks that you get to work less than 40 hours and still get paid the same. We're on their time, their rules. Personal life should always be left at the door when you're arriving at work, and if you work from home, well, then you're working within a luxury in itself and should be more appreciative of the extra spent comfortably at home and focus more on the work you're getting paid to do.

Zinch of GA 3:09PM September 26, 2008

this is a joke, employers are taking time from employees home- lifes without thought, with zero respect for the employee. So why not use email at work. When you I get paid for overtime,or oncall or afterhours meetings, then I will stop sending emails at work.
Were exactly are the employees legal protections for any of this.

hate_american_employer of KS 2:06PM September 24, 2008

Thats why I have the new blackberry with a full keypad and large screen; Or I just take my own laptop with me and use my air card. I have credit cards linked with one of my e-mail services so I don't want nosey nellies seing that either.

Emily of KS 12:35AM August 26, 2008

I notice that in your artcle you dont talk about encryted email services.You can write what ever you want if your email service is a close network and high level encrytion.People are taking email security very lightly and now are getting burned.Look at IQWEBMAIL's service it will surprise you!!!!Its a big differenece from yahoo,hotmail etc.Why people send important information in open text over the internet,blows my mind.

michael Riggins of CA 10:24AM August 07, 2008

Just because you use the webmail feature of your personal e-mail account, don't think you are safe. You are still using the network resources of your company to send and receive web pages, which can be scanned. Many e-mail website don't use secure web sites to log you in, so it's possible to have your username & password revealed. After you log in, you are probably not using secure transmissions.

of LA 10:52AM August 06, 2008