Why are we so puritanical in the work place about emails?

I have to ask this, and it is prompted by this article in the Mail about a woman who resigned from her City job at Deloitte after she was rumbled for sending emails to female colleagues asking them to vote for the office fitties (male fitties).

According to the piece...

When graduate trainee Holly Leam-Taylor planned an office awards ceremony she thought it would be a bit of festive fun.


She duly emailed a small number of female colleagues at City firm Deloitte asking them to vote on the most attractive men.


With nine categories such as ‘boy most likely to sleep his way to the top’ and ‘most attractive older member of staff’

So what? The thing is, every year I read articles in the press about people either quitting or more often than not, being sacked, because of 'inappropriate' use of emails or 'inappropriate' things said in emails. Be they of a jokey, sexual or risque nature.

This is very odd, because the same rules never ever apply to the spoken word. My language in the office, for example, is absolutely appalling. Totally unacceptable. I know it makes people bristle sometimes, and I know it's not on, and my jokey crazy banter which I sometimes burst into is unprofessional and quite frankly rude and bawdy.

But you know what? No-one would ever do or say anything about it. Largely because people know it's me doing it, and as a result, they don't take it seriously. People know I don't mean any ill-will or malice and I'm a good bloke.

But transfer a fraction of my banter to emails, and you're in a different world entirely. I know damn well I'd be screwed if I used emails to slag off or gossip or make sexual remarks about colleagues (to add here: I don't make sexual remarks about colleagues or do dodgy gossip, my weird banter is something else entirely, but definitely not for the emails all the same).

I've heard water-cooler type chats amongst my female colleagues about blokes and other sorts of matters, just like the sorts of things that get people fired when uttered over email. Everyone catches little sneaky bits of banter. Yet it never goes anywhere.

So what's the deal with email?

My belief is that email is permanent proof, usually held in 'After Mail' type archives and such capture mechanisms in Outlook Express, and because words stare out from a screen far more starkly than they come across when enunciated in real life, it has more impact.

Of course, logically, there is no reason why the workplace should be any more uptight about email banter than spoken banter.

In reality, the worse that generally happens with a loose tongue, is a bit of a quiet word. I'm pleased to say that, despite my incessant grumblings and moanings and insurrectionist, anarchistic, anti-manager/authority talk in the office, I am always allowed to have my say regardless of who is in the room.

Well, to be fair, maybe people know it's better for them not to fuck with me when I'm in a rage or a mood about something. Which is often.

But when I think about the idea of sending my thoughts on things like that round emails? It sends shudders down even my bold and brass spine.

For what it is worth, I think this uptightness over emails is silly and unnecessary. Probably a hangover from an age when the internet and emails were just creeping into the running of the workplace.

It would bother me or concern me not a jot, were a female colleague of mine to send round emails like those sent round Deloitte by Holly Leam-Taylor. Even if I were ranked bottom of the office.

Why? Because if email is allowed for limited work place chat between colleagues (which in most offices, it is) then that's their right. It's their freedom of speech. It's not like they are plotting murder. It's some harmless banter and fun for a number of individuals.

Just because I may not like the content of something, does not give me the right to demand censorship. If the owner of a business wants to change the rules on email usage, well, what can I say? I'd accuse the owner of being an unfair, unreasonable, censorial, oppressive, authoritarian shit bag. But there's not much one can do about that.

Leam-Taylor should not have felt ashamed, embarrassed or compelled to quit. She did nothing wrong. I'd not have done it - I'm married and have never really done stuff like that as I don't see the point.

But what a shame this country is so bloody uptight, full of people with sticks right up their arses, that people can't have a bit of a 'who's hot' banter on the emails without it all going Pete Tong.