Columbus Dispatch - Cover story - Business Section

Instead of hearing the ubiquitous AOL e-mail greeting, "You've got mail!,'' many businesses are getting the message, "You've got trouble'' when it comes to their electronic- messaging systems. E-mail became the first really practical use for the Internet. Forget expensive phone calls or overnight deliveries. Suddenly, companies could stay in touch with clients, customers and far- flung employees instantly anywhere on the globe. Love it or loathe it, e-mail has become part of the American lifestyle. For many businesses, taking away e-mail -- such as when an Internet failure knocks out messages -- is as damaging as turning off telephones.

Studies indicate more than 3 billion e-mail messages bounce back and forth in cyberspace each day, up from 300 million in 1995. There are predictions that by 2002, e-mail traffic will boom to 8 billion messages every day.

A report released in April by the research firm Frost & Sullivan called "Internet/Intranet Online'' found that the average personal computer user has 180 megabytes of stored e-mails -- 180,000 typed pages. It also said that 59 percent of U.S. adults use the Internet daily to send or receive e-mail.

Problems abound

But e-mail has not developed into a communications panacea for businesses. Its popularity has opened up a Pandora's box of problems for corporate America.

The issues range from serious violations of propriety to incidents more embarrassing than damaging. The list of companies experiencing difficulties that have been reported include some of the most well-respected businesses around the globe.

For example:

First Union, a large financial- services company based in Charlotte, N.C., announced in late August that it had fired seven employees for sending inappropriate e-mail.

The materials ranged from supposedly humorous animated files to pornography and other files of a sexual nature. The perpetrators were uncovered by computer-systems personnel who noticed the e-mail server was becoming bogged down by an especially heavy data flow. past spring, the brokerage house Edward D. Jones & Co., which has 17,000 workers worldwide, took action against 60 employees after an employee in its St. Louis headquarters complained about an e-mail being circulated with offensive content. The brokerage fired 19 workers and disciplined 41 others.

In one of the most well- known cases of employees causing their company grief, Chevron Corp. paid $2.2 million in 1995 to settle sexual-harassment claims. Several female employees said that they had received hostile e-mail, which even included violent pornography.

In 1997, Citibank, since merged with Travelers Group to become the financial-services giant Citigroup, rapidly took action when two black employees filed a lawsuit over e-mailed jokes they said created a hostile work environment. The company fired or punished five employees.

Problems have hit home for such central Ohio corporations as Honda of America Manufacturing Co. In August, reports began surfacing that the sprawling automaker disciplined or fired as many as 88 employees.

The company has not said exactly what took place, nor has it indicated how many of its workers were involved in the disciplinary action. A spokesman for Marysville, Ohio-based Honda did confirm that the problem was uncovered by monitoring e-mail activity.

The Dayton Daily News reported that from 35 to 88 employees were disciplined, but spokesman Roger Lambert said "only a few'' employees were terminated, and that far fewer than 88 received punishment for their actions.

The company, which employs 13,200 at its plants in Marysville, East Liberty and Anna, Ohio makes e-mail available to white- collar and some production workers.

No one is immune

Even the world's richest man has found himself caught up in e- mail exchanges which cast an unflattering light on his company. During Microsoft Corp.'s highly publicized antitrust trial this past summer, Chairman Bill Gates found that all his money couldn't quash the introduction of e-mail transcripts as evidence that Microsoft was trying to smash Netscape Communications Corp.

The evidence included such things as Gates writing in an e- mail: "Do we have a clear plan on what we want Apple to do to undermine SUN?'' In his videotaped rebuttals, Gates said he did not recall sending them.

The bottom line is that people become so wrapped up in using e-mail, they forget about its inherent dangers. People believe that the delete button actually does something,'' Wade said. "That is the problem with e-mail. There are a number of quality plaintiffs' lawyers out there today who don't ask for just written documents. They also ask for electronic documents, including e- mail messages. Oftentimes, there are potentially damaging documents, and oftentimes they will have been 'deleted.'

The other problem in e-mail is the potential for misinterpretation. E-mail has introduced a speedy, clipped writing style that gives rise to something jotted off in a quick note being taken the wrong way.

The intriguing thing about e- mail is that people who are not 'keyboard friendly' will have someone else draft something for them, and they'll sound bad. They'll just dash off something that they'd never write in a letter or tell someone in person. And those are the things that show up on a 3-by-5-foot blow- up board in front of a jury.'

Joe Dreitler, with Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease, whose specialties include Internet law, couldn't agree more. "In the past, we'd pore over something before it was mailed, but now the art of letter writing tends to get lost with e-mail,'' said Dreitler, who has been involved with a recent Internet-related court case in central Ohio, Wendy's pursuit of a Texas Web site scam artist.

Nothing's private

E-mail systems are not private, and an employer has the right to read any messages employees send or receive. While the Wiretap Act and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 prohibit the interception of electronic messages or computer hacking in general, there are two major exceptions: law enforcement (with a court order) and employers.

Managers and employees alike also forget that with a few keystrokes, an e-mail message is going not just to the intended recipient but potentially every corner of the Internet. And it can stay out there for a long time.

"What is said in a confidential manner can be sent to millions,'' Dreitler said. "It all goes back to the fact thatit's easy to do it.''

Dreitler equates that to the way photocopying became a popular office tool a quarter-century ago. "Instead of one copy, there were 25 copies floating around. The Microsoft case shows that with e-mail, there are a lot of copies always hanging around.''

Most large companies have implemented e-mail policies, and both Wade and Dreitler recognize their value. Many times, portions of a company handbook cover e- mail, as far as inappropriate behavior goes. But, developing a usage policy should not be limited just to the big guys.

"A policy is no more effective than the people who have to follow it.'' "How much time can you spend enforcing your policy? Are you going to have an e- mail police? "One of the most effective policies I've found is to have an open-office situation, so that computer screens are accessible to everyone else's view.''

A lot of it comes down to employees recognizing what is the right thing to do, as far as e-mail use goes. They also must realize that there is nothing private about e-mail.

"No matter what you do today to keep your e-mail private, there will be 100 people working tonight to undo it,'' Dreitler said. "As time goes by, people will be getting more adept at using e-mail. The bottom line is that you can't protect the world.

"We have to recognize that there are some things that we should not use e-mail for. Most organizations are convinced that, used properly, it works.''

To some degree, Americans' penchants to save stuff is aggravating the e-mail problem. By stashing copies of electronic messages, companies open themselves to serious liability situations.

He tells the story of how an executive from a company's information-technology department was in the process of being fired when he brought a file chock-full of e-mail gleanings he had collected over the years to the human-resources department.

"He had just surfed and for things that he figured would protect his job.'' "They were just some outrageous e-mail messages. Needless to say, he was there for a very long time after that.

"My admonition to clients is to respect your (information- technology) staff and treat your (information-technology) staff well.''

Information glut

In a sense, U.S. workers are being overwhelmed with messages of all kinds, not just e-mail. The Information Age has led to an information glut.

A recent study done by the Gallup Organization and the Institute for the Future found in the report, issued by Pitney Bowes Inc., that on a typical workday, a U.S. worker sends or receives 201 messages, a 6 percent increase from 1998.

Of those messages, that average worker receives 52 phone calls and 36 e-mails.

According to Alan Abdullahi, president of Lansoft, a local provider of computer services to businesses, "E-mail could offer companies better productivity and better connectivity, but it later became a potential liability.''

There's a bottom line when it comes to e-mail, Dreitler says.

"The question becomes, with all of this going round and round, is whether the decision-making process at the end of the day has improved or not.''

He added, "E-mail is a part of your environment, a part of your life. You have to be as considerate in that environment as in any other. It can help you accomplish more.''

Unless you get bogged down defending your actions in a courtroom.