Who is to blame for Digital Blunders?

This week we've revealed two interesting findings from our Digital Blunders survey: 52 per cent of us have committed one and 32 per cent of employers would sack somebody for committing a serious one which offended a client or customer.

So while they may provide some great amusement there is obviously a serious issue here - with at least one sixth of the workforce running the daily risk of getting the sack for committing a Digital Blunder. So who is to blame?

Our survey revealed - unsurprisingly - that the majority of respondents blame the clumsy sender who hits reply when they meant to hit forward once they'd added a barbed remark about the original sender. In fact a massive 83.6 per cent of respondents blamed the sender of the blunder, but if there is any surprise here it's that the figure wasn't higher.

In part this was kept lower by the blame which 9.3 per cent of respondents apportioned to the company employing the blunderer.

This may sound like a classic passing of the buck, but lax email usage policies are often the catalyst for a blunder. If a company tolerates saucy, profane and non work-related email on a network also used for serious business communication then they are also being fingered for some of the blame when things go awry.

The fact that the survey revealed that 90 per cent of companies allow employees to send personal emails, and 41 per cent of companies have no email usage policy - perhaps there is some truth behind a notion of corporate culpability.

Paul Rutherford, chief marketing officer of email filtering firm Clearswift, said: "In the eyes of the law if an employee using a company's resources sends an email which obviously originates from that company, then that person is representing that company and their actions are a reflection upon that company."

He added: "Disclaimers are important, but there needs to be more done."

Rutherford proposes that companies need to adopt a three-part policy plan, which he defines as "Establish, educate and enforce" - make sure there is a clear email usage policy, educate staff on the finer points and ensure you constantly remind them about that policy. Then, if people are still in breach the company is covered should it need to take action.

"If a company doesn't do this, then frankly they are turning a blind eye to the problem and they will end up on the front page eventually."