Don’t mix e-business with e-pleasure

Keep your personal e-mail messages out of the workplace. If this is a problem, set up a private e-mail account for your home use. When you’re at work, you should be working. Corresponding with a long-lost buddy from college (usually) is not what you’re paid to do. So separate the two worlds!
Using the office e-mail system to circulate jokes, pass along nonwork-related gossip, or conduct other private correspondence is unethical and may cost you your job! It can usually be tracked—even if you press “delete” after sending your message. All the “Powers That Be” have to do is go back to the master tape. (And remember, your company may be liable for information—or disinformation—that “leaks” into the far reaches of cyberspace inadvertently.)

Think before you key! If you wouldn’t want the message to be posted on your company bulletin board, don’t send it through the e-mail system. Play it safe and conduct personal e-mail correspondence at home. Conduct workrelated e-mail correspondence at work.

��Respond in a timely manner. Whether it’s a phone call or an e-mail, no one likes to be kept waiting, and certainly not your e-mail correspondent. Send a reply as quickly as you can, preferably within 24 hours, even if it’s just to say you have received the message and will follow up. If your e-mail program is capable of doing so, provide for an “automatic reply” whenever you are away—a message that automatically acknowledges receipt of messages and provides information about when you will return.