When employees are harassed in the workplace with e-mail from unknown sources, the attorney called in to help must wear three hats: lawyer, technician and private eye. As employees have become increasingly Internet and e-mail savvy, e-mail mischief has become yet another nuisance for employers.
Most employees are shrewd enough not to send a harassing or threatening workplace e-mail under their own names using their employer’s e-mail system. Many, however, have begun sending such e-mail via personal e-mail accounts, using either a phony name or an innocent person’s name. Imagine a “joke” e-mail in which a supervisor purportedly propositions a subordinate, fires a subordinate or announces an across-the-board pay cut, or perhaps an e-mail that purports to be from a sexual predator or that physically or sexually threatens an employee.
