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In this world of fast-paced technology, even though more work is being accomplished, personal interaction is often a casualty. As e-mail, faxes and the Internet take center stage, employees are relegated to the wings, shut off from colleagues and face-to-face communication. One issue that has come to the forefront is the misuse of e-mail and electronic communication.&lt;p&gt;Employees used to be able to interpret a face-to-face discussion through tone of voice, facial expressions and the like. But on e-mail, those clues are missing. The popularity of e-mail in the workplace has given rise to new kinds of harassment problems and created new challenges for employers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For example, an employee who would never dream of telling a dirty joke to a female co-worker might not think twice about forwarding such a joke to her by e-mail. Similarly, an employee who wouldn&#39;t bring a pornographic magazine to the workplace might download pornographic pictures onto his computer and leave the computer screen visible to co-workers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a claim for sexual harassment can arise where one employee subjects another employee to unwelcome, offensive acts that are so severe or pervasive as to make a reasonable person feel that the work environment is intimidating, offensive, and hostile.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In order to protect your company against sexual harassment claims, you must monitor and control youremployee&#39;s use of the computer. Because e-mail is stored on a computer system that&#39;s owned and operatedby your company, the courts have generally found that employers have the right to review the e-mailtransmissions of your employees.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An effective way to help your employees understand how to use e-mail correctly is to draft and circulate aclearly written policy regarding employee computer and e-mail use. It should outline prohibited conductand advise employees that the company will be monitoring computer usage.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An effective policy should contain the following provisions:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;No computer communications or documents shall contain profanity, obscenity or defamatory language.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;All communications transmitted through the computer are governed by the company&#39;s anti- harassment and anti-discrimination policies.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The downloading, display, or transmission of sexually explicit pictures is strictly prohibited.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The company will perform periodic inspections of employee e-mails to ensure that all employees are complying with the company&#39;s computer use policy.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;You also should encourage your employees to inform you immediately if they see an offensive e-mail. Once you are advised of a potential problem with an employee&#39;s use of e-mail you should immediately investigate the problem and sanction the employee who behaved inappropriately.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Firstdoor develops and Web-enables valuable knowledge pertaining to all aspects of HR management throughout the employer/employee lifecycle. Designed to improve enterprise learning and knowledge retention, the company&#39;s fully hosted, scalable, and easy-to-integrate eLearning system provides &#39;eDoorways&#39; to knowledge that are designed to facilitate real, on demand learning behaviors.(c) 2001 FirstDoor.com, Inc. All rights reserved. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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