Download the new Switched app for your iPhone

Skip to Content

Engadget for the iPhone: download the app now
AOL Tech

Filed under: Internet, Security, News, Blogging, E-mail

The first rule about Fight Club is don't blog about Fight Club

Proofpoint study
If a new study is to be believed, nearly 10 percent of companies have fired an employee for blogging or posting forum messages in violation of corporate policy.

The report (pdf) was conducted for Proofpoint, a company that sells email monitoring software, so it has a vested interest in showing executives that they can't trust their workers. So take these juicy findings with a grain of salt:
  • 32.1% of companies surveyed employ staff to read or analyze outbound email.
  • 16.9% of companies surveyed had at least one person on staff whose primary job was to monitor outbound email.
  • 37% of companies surveyed perform regular audits of outbound email.
  • The companies surveyed estimate that 18.9% of outbound email includes content that poses a risk to the company (Keep in mind -- this is what the company's estimate. That's a far cry from saying that 1 in 5 outbound messages could actually bring the company down).
More than a quarter of the companies surveyed had fired an employee in the past year for violating email policies. And nearly half had disciplined employees for the same infraction. More than 20% had investigated exposure of confidential information via a blog or message board. And 14% have disciplined companies for violating social networking policies, with 5% saying they've fired a worker for that violation.

In other words, either companies really do have a lot to worry about, or they overreact to employees' meek efforts to connect in some way with the world outside their cubicles. We'll let you draw your own conclusions.
jobs & resumes
Mac Support Technician

Kerdan - Cambridge, MA (2 weeks ago)

See More Relevant Jobs ›

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Featured Time Waster

Level Up! A platform-hopping RPG Time-Waster

I don't know if this is a labor of love or merely the brainchild of four very gifted games designers, but Level Up is a really weird mash-up of gaming elements that you have probably never seen in a Flash game before. Let's start with the premise itself: Groundhog Day meets Memento. The game experience revolves around 'days': you explore the world and the clock slowly ticks towards the evening. You bounce around picking up gems and talking to the denizens of 'Level Upland'. Eventually you feel tired and head back to ...

View more Time Wasters


Follow us on Twitter!

More Tech Coverage

Joystiq

TUAW

DailyFinance

Autoblog

Urlesque

Engadget

WoW

Switched.com

FanHouse