Some also can send the author of the message a pop-up warning or reminder about use policies. Some customers program the software to produce periodic reports on incidents. Even at intelligence agencies, employees often are allowed one or two slips of the keyboard, as long as it's a matter of offensive material rather than intentional threats or disclosure of sensitive information. Keith Thurston, an IT policy specialist at the General Services Administration's Office of Governmentwide Policy, says he's aware of at least one case in which a federal employee was fired for using e-mail as a tool for sexual harassment and to threaten a subordinate. Employees occasionally have challenged the disciplinary actions taken against them for misuse of e-mail, but the Merit Systems Protection Board and the courts have generally upheld agency sanctions.
Warnings often come when employees are hired and during periodic IT, ethics or security training.
Many agencies display them on computer login screens and Web pages. But in the federal government such warnings are not mandatory, experts say, before an agency begins to monitor e-mail and to use the results of its monitoring. At a few agencies, any personal use of e-mail is a violation of policy. But agencies increasingly are taking the position that occasional personal use is acceptable, just as with federal office telephones. Thurston, who coordinates an interagency group of federal e-mail managers, says many agencies have adopted guidance issued last year by the Chief Information Officers Council.