Helping Tulsa Area United Way member Agencies
make the most of Technology
A project of the Tulsa Area United Way Capacity Building Fund
Sample Electronic-Mail and Voice-Mail Use Guideline
E-mail and V-mail are corporate assets and critical components of communication systems. The E-mail and V-mail systems are provided by the company for employees to facilitate the performance of company work and their contents are the property of . Although the company does not make a practice of monitoring these systems, management reserves the right to retrieve the contents for legitimate reasons, such as to find lost messages, to comply with investigations of wrongful acts or to recover from system failure.
Personal use of E-mail or V-mail by employees is allowable but should not interfere with or conflict with business use. Employees should exercise good judgment regarding the reasonableness of personal use. A junkmail group and other ad-hoc mail groups are available for employees to exchange information or post personal notices (i.e. "for sale", "for rent", "looking to buy", etc.). Employees may sell items or post messages on junkmail or other ad-hoc mail groups as long as they do not violate the law or company policies.
Use of E-mail and V-mail is limited to employees and authorized vendors, temporaries, or contractors. Employees and authorized users are responsible to maintain the security of their account and their password. They should change their password quarterly and take precautions to prevent unauthorized access to their mailbox by logging off when possible if their terminal is unattended. (Unauthorized entry to an individual's account or mailbox poses system security issues for other users.) E-mail and V-mail passwords should be at least 6 alphanumeric characters including at least one numeric character for E-mail.
Efficient Usage
Efficient use of the E-mail and V-mail systems suggests that messages should be concise and directed to individuals with an interest or need to know. General notice bulletins may be sent to public groups, news groups local to , junk mail, or specific work groups. Standards for global mailings can be found in (some location)
V-mail messages which have been read will expire after 7 days. This is a limitation of the disk storage capacity of the voicemail system.
Misuses of Electronic-mail and Voice-mail Misuse of E-mail/V-mail can result in disciplinary action up to and including termination. Examples of misuse includes the following:
- Your Organizationprohibits obscene, profane or offensive material from being transmitted over any company communication system. This includes, for example, accessing erotic materials via news groups. Also, messages, jokes, or forms which violate our harassment policy or create an intimidating or hostile work environment are prohibited.
- Use of company communications systems to set up personal businesses or send chain letters is prohibited.
- Company confidential messages should be distributed to Your Organizationpersonnel only. Forwarding to locations outside Your Organizationis prohibited.
- Accessing copyrighted information in a way that violates the copyright is prohibited.
- Breaking into the system or unauthorized use of a password/mailbox is prohibited.
- Broadcasting unsolicited personal views on social, political, religious or other non-business related matters is prohibited.
- Solicitation to buy or sell goods or services is prohibited except on junkmail or ad-hoc mail groups. Responsibility for this policy:
The Information Systems department is responsible to ensure the efficient use of systems according to this policy. Where issues arise, I.S. will deal directly with the employee (and notify their manager where appropriate). The interpretation of appropriate use and future revisions of this policy are the responsibility of the Communications Steering Committee (VP. HR, General Counsel, I.S. Director).
