All it takes to get the sack is a bit of malicious gossip, an email and a manager keen to use some of the latest software for snooping on staff.
Any manager can do it.
And if an employee finds out and complains, the employer can draw on a raft of government endorsed excuses to support their surreptitious activities. Along with organisations like the Industrial Society, an employment think tank, they say employers already paranoid about pornography and viruses circulating on their systems might use the regulations to extend their tentacles and snoop on all electronic communications. While employers have legitimate interests to protect, over zealous monitoring can undermine employees' dignity and autonomy within the workplace. A measure of the growth in snooping can be found on the London stock exchange where Baltimore Technologies has become one of the fastest growing companies of recent times on the back of a suit of internet security software including Minesweeper, one of the most popular snooping software products. Even Hollywood noticed the impact of email when Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan created the hit film You've got Mail.