Caution: Do not use e-mail without adult supervision

In my 20-some years of living, I've seen the evolution of cell phones replacing house phones; laptops replacing desktops and typewriters; iPods replacing radios; text messages replacing phone calls; and DVR recorders replacing the VCR or watching a TV show in real time.

Perhaps the biggest evolution I've seen has been that of e-mail communication. E-mail is one of the best forms of communication to date, if you ask me. It's quick, simple and most of the time, efficient. But new studies show that e-mail use, along with other forms of e-communication, is getting some people in trouble - at work.

More than a quarter of U.S. companies surveyed (27.6 percent) terminated an employee for violating e-mail policies in the past year and 45.5 percent of companies have disciplined an employee for violating e-mail policies in the same time period, according to a survey conducted by Forrester Consulting for Proofpoint Inc., which provides e-mail security and data loss prevention solutions for organizations.

More and more, employees are either unaware of a company e-mail policy, or they figure it's nothing that is taken too seriously. However, the survey showed that nearly a third of companies (32.1 percent) employ staff to read or otherwise analyze outbound e-mail and 37 percent perform regular audits of outbound e-mail content.

Plus, think about all of the other communications channels in today's enterprise - there are blogs, instant messaging, social networking sites (like Facebook or MySpace) and media sharing sites (like YouTube) - just to name a few.

More than 1 in 7 companies surveyed (14 percent) have disciplined an employee for violating social networking policies in the past 12 months; 11 percent have disciplined an employee for violating media sharing/posting policies and 19.2 percent have disciplined an employee for violating blog or message board policies, according to the survey.

Richard Cellini, vice president of Integrity Interactive, offers these things to remember to avoid getting in trouble with your e-mail at work:

• E-mail is not private.
• E-mail is forever; it can never be deleted.
• E-mail is never informal or temporary.
• E-mail can be forwarded or mis-directed.
• E-mail is discoverable and may be required to be turned over by law.
• Even if no wrongdoing has occurred, poor word choice can give the appearance that something wrong has occured. For example, Cellini says employees draw attention to a situation by dramatizing it. Writing, "We're getting fired" or "Someone is going to get killed!" in an e-mail will only get you in trouble, even if you meant nothing by it, Cellini says.
• Company has the right to access all communications created at work or with company resources, including: Intranet usage, Internet, IM, chat rooms, written documents, telephone and voicemail.
• "Good judgement" should be the guide to computer use.

As a general rule, to avoid getting in trouble at your new job, just ask about the company e-mail policy, as well as any other e-communication activities.