email control

[Lynne Desrochers]

We use a POP email service. I have been asked if there is a way to block internal emails (we have some chatting going on). It's not possible through our current service. Is there a program or would exchange be able to control the email? Thanks.

[Lynne Desrochers]

I would think we could create an email rule on the inbox, but could a rule delete an item and delete it from the deleted items? And isn't a rule created in the inbox easily found if you have the first clue about outlook?

[Mark]

It might be easier to just add the accounts to a managers Outlook and tell the employees they are being monitored.  You could set the manager's Outlook to leave the messages on the server so that they still show up in the employee's mailbox.

[Jim Jensen]

There is an option to permanently delete in rules settings, but yes, it would be easy for someone to turn it off.

[Hans Manhave]

I am continuing to suggest Appriver's Exchange hosting.  Works quite well.  In and outgoing can be looked at through logs (not the content).  Incoming can be bounced, redirected, copied, just put in spam, or deleted.  It costs money, but it works well and support is excellent.  Don't forget to get the ASCnet discount and use me as a referral. 

You may also want to look into the POP hosting e-mail service you already have and look into the rule making.  There are several things you can do already such as copying someone's incoming e-mails to someone else (or separate aggregating address) so you can have the evidence. 

Make sure your e-mail usage policy is clear that it is business use and business managers/owners can and will look at correspondence by it paper, e-mail or fax. That way it is not a covert operation which it does not need to be.  There should be no expectancy of privacy in these matters.

And, yes, I have used all the methods I suggested.  It is sometimes better to just block or re-route and so help the people with fighting their addiction than to sever the relationship.

[Jim Jensen]

I would Doofus' (Hans') thoughts about internal policies a little further and consider a computer-usage agreement. This not only would include the expectation of privacy notification (the lack of expectation, that is), but also should include requirements about social media usage, prohibitions of aliases from empolyer-provided hardware, expectations regarding obscene material, etc. All of these should probably be in an employee handbook, but if not, this document will at least take care of several pieces or can be updated more frequently than an employee manual. They've been shown to hold up in court, particularly for the expectation of privacy arguments.

[admin]

policy first - acceptable use guidelines which the executive / owners / managers sign-off on, this is them disseminated to the staff, preferably via HR which has to be read and signed.

I'm not a proponent of using technology to solve people-problems.

[Hans Manhave]

If the user(s) in question is denying the events, it could be helpful to install a low overhead program such as RAdmin to view the screen remotely.  You can then even take snapshots (print screens and paste in Word or something like that).  However, a log of the in and out e-mails (or just 'in' if limited on the POP host) can easily show an abuse of the system.  Of course, if you stop all this that you see, don't believe it is gone.  Look for excessive bathroom visits, file cabinet visits etc to check the smartphone and send messsages back.  You may have to become a "helicopter parent" for a while. 

For today, go straight to the POP host and mess with it there.  So much fun.

[Jan Regnier]

policy first - acceptable use guidelines which the executive / owners / managers sign-off on, this is them disseminated to the staff, preferably via HR which has to be read and signed.

I'm not a proponent of using technology to solve people-problems.

This is what we did...we created the document regarding computer/email usage and every employee was required to read, acknowledge and sign and date the document.

[Lynne Desrochers]

Thanks everyone. We have a policy in place, have for years. It is with the employee handbook and everyone is required to sign off on it.  It's never the users, it's the abusers. Happy Friday!