Sally Kaspers thought she was making a new friend. In reality, she’d been caught in an e-mail “banter sting” – a tactic used by over 10,000 American companies to crack down on friendly work correspondence.
An analyst at Detroit-based Tewksbury-Drummond, Kaspers’ experience began on January 20 when she replied to a guy who said he was in marketing and needed data. Their thread soon included talk of vacations and favorite bars, with liberal use of smiley faces and 14 other emoji.
Following her 17th reply, Kaspers – who currently works from home – was contacted by Human Resources and informed that she’d actually been communicating with an HR manager as part of a company-wide operation aimed at catching people using e-mail for non-work purposes.
“We maintain a strict three reply policy,” says the company’s HR Director, Helen VanBuskirk. “We need to enforce it.”
According to William Hodge of the Business Behaviors Institute of Omaha, stings like this are becoming more necessary as the use of electronic communication expands – especially recently with people working remotely and looking for any kind of interaction.
“Without restrictions message threads can quickly grow into the thousands,” he says. “This means wasting storage space, diverting effort from essential responsibilities, and the potential ruination of a company.”
Kaspers was let off with a warning, but told that any further violations would result in disciplinary action.
“I appreciate the company’s concern for my career,” she says, noting that she even sent the phony marketing guy a note of thanks. When he replied, “Glad to help!” with two smiley faces, Kaspers let it go at that.
