THE dark side of email has been uncovered by a new report that suggests it is being widely used by managers to bully and harass their subordinates.
The survey, commissioned by the software company Novell, of 1,043 people who use email at work found more than half regularly receive abusive email, or "flame mail ". One in 70 respondents said abusive email had forced them to leave their jobs. A third of flame-mail recipients said they had stopped communicating with a colleague as a result, or had considered doing so.
"Email lacks the consideration and thought usually afforded to other forms of written communication," said Dr David Lewis, a psychologist. "Instead, email is immediate, often impetuous and wide open to misuse and misunderstanding."
Men are the most frequent victims - and perpetrators. Nearly half of all male respondents admitted they had flamed colleagues; men were five times more likely than women to have flamed their co-workers.
Additionally, one in six respondents said they or someone they knew had been officially disciplined or reprimanded via email.
Unlike sending a printed memo, sending an email is as quick and easy as making a phone call - but the lack of face-to-face contact makes it easy to overstep the mark when criticising others. The problem is made worse because, according to the survey's findings, one person in three responds to abusive email with an abusive reply. As well as wasting time (94 per cent of respondents said they wasted as much as an hour a day dealing with pointless email), engaging in office flame wars is often just what the bullies want.
"One of the tactics bullies use is provocation," said Tim Field, who runs the National Workplace Bullying Advice Line. "If they can provoke an irrational response, then it can be copied to other people, further humiliating the victim." However, he noted that because email can be stored and printed, victims of such harassment can produce documentary evidence.
Publication of the report, Shaming, Blaming and Flaming: Corporate Miscommunication in the Digital Age, coincides with a national conference on workplace bullying. For its part, Novell has implemented new rules governing its internal use of email, one of which advises employees: "Think before you send any email. Never email rashly or out of anger." T.S.
