Hi David, you wrote: > This is the most frightening thing I have heard in a long time, Kakki. Can > one be legally executed for having such emails, or merely fired? Is gay > content considered grounds for dismissal?
It is kind of frightening, but I think the law across the U.S. for awhile now has upheld the employer's right to read and monitor employee email and also to fire an employee if they break the rules. My former law firm was very liberal politically (believe me, the three Republicans who worked there were deeply closeted ;-) yet wanted to protect themselves from any liability arising from email on their network. They warned everyone several times that the email could be monitored at anytime before they started doing it. They also had employment discrimination (sex, religious, ethnic) sensitivity training which was mandatory for all employees to attend on an annual basis. Their bottom line policy was that no one should speak or write about anything or place any kind of book or photo on their desk that could be construed as harrasing or offensive and it was best not to bring up a subject at all. Literally, we were told it was a risk to, for example, ask someone innocently if they were Irish or Jewish or discuss religion in front of them or flatter them on their appearance or talk about sex. I think it is sad that we have become such a fascist society in this respect, but that has been the trend for awhile now. Perhaps the trend of the laws in California particularly have led to this hyperalertness - I don't know. I know the firm did have a number of harassment/discrimination complaints from employees that would blow reasonable people's minds. What was even scarier to me was to learn that the law had evolved to where ALL email could be subpoened en masse without editing! Kakki
