Dirty laundry
I'm wary about using my W*** e-mail account (Hah, you thought I was going to identify my station, eh?) for personal business. Given the amount of junk e-mail I receive from overeager PR people - who think a successful campaign involves spamming every newspaper, radio, and TV station in a 100 mile radius - I wouldn't even be able to find any messages from my family and friends.
But the other reason is because I know my employer can snoop in on my e-mail at any time. A producer at WNEP learned that lesson this month...the hard way. The word from a few tipsters is this producer was having an affair with other station employees, and was using her WNEP e-mail account to flirt with people.
Whoops! Needless to say, this producer was fired. Marisa Burke has replaced her.
This leads us to a Beale's Bites of Advice(tm) moment. Don't use company resources for your personal business, especially if it's something that will get you into trouble (workplace affairs, sending resumes to other stations, etc.). Either use a free webmail account, like Hotmail or Gmail, or wait until you get home.
But the other reason is because I know my employer can snoop in on my e-mail at any time. A producer at WNEP learned that lesson this month...the hard way. The word from a few tipsters is this producer was having an affair with other station employees, and was using her WNEP e-mail account to flirt with people.
Whoops! Needless to say, this producer was fired. Marisa Burke has replaced her.
This leads us to a Beale's Bites of Advice(tm) moment. Don't use company resources for your personal business, especially if it's something that will get you into trouble (workplace affairs, sending resumes to other stations, etc.). Either use a free webmail account, like Hotmail or Gmail, or wait until you get home.
posted by Howard Beale at 1:37 PM
17 Comments:
You would think most people would already know this under the "common sense" category, but apparently not. I've learned from my oen personal experiances, if I'm ever doing something even slightly riskay, I use my personal email address or call on my cell using *67. Some work requires caution, but apparently it's not obvious enough for some people like the WNEP producer. Oh well.
Anyone who doesn't realize that their company has full control over all of their IT resources needs to sit down and read policy statements. A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G that passes through your employer's server belongs to them, and that includes free web-based e-mail accounts. If you use their server, and you most assuredly do on the job, nothing is private, they actually own every word you type.
Good thing the clue-bus finally went by you at W***!!! This happened more than a month ago. As they say at Nexstar, better way late than never.
I was only told of what happened this past week by some tipsters. I don't stay in the loop on every sordid detail in this market, and yet, nobody seems to see the whole "send in your tips anonymously" thing at the top of this blog.
Some people do. And others just complain. Meh.
From what I understand, the rules on what passes through the company's server and email are still kind of open. Last I heard, there are still court cases pending where the policies that were not defined in writing are being challenged. Did the news station have this in writing and inform said employee? If not, she could have a case against them.
So at Dubya-NEP a producer can't fool around with a married co-worker, but one star anchor can live with a married public official, and another star anchor can tap every chick in the newsroom. That's like a triple standard. yes, this won't see the light of day but it's a damn good story for someone who has some journalistic cojones for a good story.
WNEP has written policies and more. It requires employees to sign a statement that they have read the policy on email conduct.
No idiot, a sleazy producer can't screw around w/married and engaged employees , get the married part of that? 2 bad she got fired. it will Hard to get a job in such a small town, where everyone knows everything.
Insiders tell me they're at a loss as to why one WNEP employee was fired and the other got off (sorry) with a mere suspension. It looks like someone had friends in management. The stupidity of this pair cannot be believed.
To answer 6:11 a.m.
One employee was fired because it was obvious through the company e-mails that she was the aggressor and sent pix in addition to the naughty e-mails; the other employee was suspended because he was not the aggressor, but did nothing to stop the alleged affair and did not go to his supervisor to say he wanted it to stop. She not only did not want it to stop but was interested in other 'conquests' at the news station as well. That is why one was fired and one was suspended.
Now that's what I call "Proud to Serve"
So much for personnel matters remaining confidential. It looks like someone at 16 Montage Mountain Road has a really big mouth and talks too much.
This could have been handled a lot better by management. Considering who's in charge, I'm not surprised.
In reagrds to 6:28am's post:
I agree with you on keeping personnel matters confidential, and that raises an interesting question. I'm just posing this to get people's opinions, because I think there may be two sides of this coin. My question is, is it better to go ahead and breach confidentiality to put rumors to rest, or to say nothing even if rumors get out of hand. I'm not just talking about this situation, either... any situation that lends to rumors. Thoughts?
Confidential is confidential. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
lawsuit? hardly... everything that happened is documented, meaning there is proof of this insane matter....as for people at wnep talking too much, the idiots should have thought about that before they went down this path.
CONCERNING THE PRODUCER WHO WAS FIRED FROM WNEP FOR, WELL WHATEVER REASON. ONE POST ON THIS PAGE SOUNDS A LOT LIKE THE CONSTANT ASS COVERING THE BIG 1-6 IS SOOOO GOOD AT ACHIEVING. THAT PLACE IS IN CONSTANT SPIN CONTROL. THE PRODUCER IN QUESTION WAS FIRED BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS FIND A SACRIFICIAL LAMB, ALWAYS! THE DIRECTOR SHE WAS SUPPOSEDLY CHASING WAS NOT AN INNOCENT VICTIM HERE. THE NWES STATION HAS AN UNWRITTEN POLICY ABOUT THEIR MANAGERS. THEY CAN COMMIT MURDER, AND THE STATION WILL FIND SOME POOR LOW LEVEL EMPLOYEE OR POSSIBLY AN INTERN TO PIN IT ON. THEN THE MANAGEMENT CIRCLES THE WAGONS AND SENDS A VAGUE E-MAIL TO EXPLAIN THE SITUATION. THAT IS THE TRUTH. THE TRUTH NO MANAGER AT CHANNEL 16 WILL CHALLENGE. THE PROBLEM IS, IT'S HARDLY EVER THE TRUTH. SNAKES SLITHER ALL OVER THE EXECUTIVE WING OF THAT BUILDING. I HAVE SEEN IT IN THE PAST AND WILL SEE IT IN THE FUTURE. IF THE PUBLIC REALLY KEW HOW UNDERLINGS ARE TREATED AT THAT STATION, THEY WOULD GO THERE WITH PITCHFORKS AND TORCHES LIKE A SCENE FROM A FRANKENSTEIN MOVIE.
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