By editorial@silicon.com, 15 June 2001 17:15
COMMENT What a plonker. He sent some nude pictures to a mate for a laugh one slip of the fingers and whoops - they've shot across the Atlantic, straight onto the desktop of some humourless US executive who happens to have a very similar name to his friend. The next thing he knows, he's standing on the pavement with a P45 in one hand and a solicitor's letter about sexual harassment in the other. Is that fair? Is it right? According to silicon.com's readers, absolutely not. If the Readers Comments we've been receiving are anything to go by, one employer - Dell - that went down this route has hugely over-reacted. Sacking the person concerned for gross misconduct would have been too much. Branding them with a sexual harassment dismissal virtually destroys their career. Put it this way - hands up all those who've sent an email to the wrong person by mistake. Hands up all those who've experienced that horrendous cold shiver run down their back when they've realised what they've done. Now rather than apologies and embarrassment, imagine a career being terminated. Surely the correct company response is a verbal warning about misuse of company resources. The mistaken recipient surely deserves an expedient and direct apology. As we head into the 21st century we are in danger of having our lives ruled by the 'terms and conditions fascists'. Let's face facts. Email has become a basic form of communication. Let's accept that staff probably use it 90 per cent for work-related business, five per cent for bitching about their fellow employees, and five per cent for keeping in touch with friends outside the organisation. Providing they are not punting illegal material around, no-one should consider anything wrong in this. Treating staff like human beings is a good thing. If we give in to those fascists now, this time next year we'll all be unemployed.
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