24 September 2007
E-mail communication yearns for TLC
Survey reveals 13% of employees flirted with via e-mail.
A survey of 752 workers by employee communication advisors, Marlin Company, has revealed that 10% of US employees claim their company has used e-mail to lay off employees.
Bosses are accused of using e-mails to avoid other difficult face-to-face conversations say 17% of the survey respondents. Another 5% of respondents report having received an humiliating e-mail that was copied to other individuals.
The impersonality of e-mail has made it 'the new shield of today's business' behind which managers hide.
E-mails are doing the dirty work
23% said they’ve received a politically incorrect
e-mail, 15% had been the recipient of an e-mail sent in anger and 13% reported receiving flirtatious e-mails.
According to Marlin president, Frank Kenna, the impersonality of e-mail has made it "the new shield of today's business" behind which managers hide to avoid negative reactions of unhappy employees.
"While e-mail works fine for day-to-day communication, the last thing you want to do is use it for something as sensitive as layoffs," Kenna said.
Heightened need for e-mail policies"Just like companies have telephone policies, they need to have e-mail policies with clear rules for what is and isn't permissible," Kenna continued.
Got a news story? Contact the newsdesk