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4  Minimising personal email (friends and family)

Although there are many surveys about the volume of spam and amount of time spent pro-

cessing email at work, there is relatively little data published on the amount of time spent 

writing personal emails. To minimise this problem and some of the problems of  over-  using 

email for business use, the following steps can be taken:

1 

Create written guidelines defining the policy on acceptable email use and disciplinary 

procedures for when guidelines are breached.

2 

Use increasing levels of control or sanctions for breaches including performance reviews, 

verbal warnings, removal of email privileges, termination and legal action.

3 

Providing training for staff on acceptable and efficient email use.

4 

Monitor emails for signatures of personal use and any breaches of the policy, e.g. swear-

ing, and take action accordingly.