The recent scandal involving former Congressman Mark Foley has made everyone aware of instant messages (IMs). New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd described his fall as "Death by Instant Message."
She wasn't surprised that current technology would one day ensnare a politician: "We knew it was coming, all this personal information zinging back and forth across cyberspace at the speed of write." As the scandal swirled, many employers scratched their heads and asked, "What are IMs, and what do I need to do about them?"
Many people confuse IMs with e-mails. Each one of those forms of online communication is similar, but each also has some unique features that make tracking them complex for employers.
*Keeping it real(time)*
IMs are real-time communications, which means that both the sender and receiver are communicating at the same time. IMs are very popular, especially among young people, because the communication resembles a real conversation more than a correspondence.
Unlike a voice conversation, however, receivers can choose to respond when they wish to, plot out their response, and be otherwise occupied while the conversation is apparently ongoing. Lots of people are IMing.
The leader in the field is AOL and today almost 50 million people use its AIM product. Other popular players in the IM game are Microsoft (Windows Live Messenger), Google (Talk), and Yahoo! (Messenger). You don't need an e-mail address to send and receive messages; there's no e-mail server that processes and stores your messages.
Users simply use a user name (Foley used Maf54). Once you've signed up with a service and selected a user name, any other person on that system or on a connected network can instantly communicate with you on your own PC or on any other PC you call your own -- like your employer's PC or laptop.
*Dangerous signals: IM at work*
Employees could be IMing while sitting at their office terminals, and you don't even know it. The IMs are transported on their own network (like AOL, Google, or Yahoo), and unless you use an enterprise system, those networks offer none of the archiving that traditional e-mail affords.
Why is IMing dangerous at work? Some might think, "Good, no paper trail, no problem." As we found out with Maf54,
however, there can be a "paper trail," and IMs can come back to haunt you. Additionally, many companies are under
regulatory guidelines to monitor, retain, and possibly disclose digital communications to and from their employees.
Finally, IMs provide an outlet for employees to divulge or discuss confidential information about your business or other data of which you have possession. And either party can easily create a permanent record of a casual conversation.
*Workplace casual*
A significant danger with IMs is the casualness of the communication. While e-mail has been criticized rightly for engendering communication composed of loose talk and sloppy thinking, IMing is actually worse.
E-mail is asynchronous communication -- that is, the sender and the receiver aren't expected to be communicating in real time. You can and should think carefully about your responses, or even whether you should respond at all, to e-mail messages.
IMs are true conversations. Both parties think little about their responses and drop almost all the typical conventions of correspondence.
That creates a situation in which people may communicate certain pieces of information or describe situations or people in ways that could be problematic for any business, especially when they believe (unfoundedly) that there's no record of their communication.
*Being IM-free*
Many employers don't wish to have their employees IMing and technology has come to the rescue by developing sophisticated software solutions that detect and block the unauthorized use of IMs on your network.
The programs will detect, report, and block any IM network traffic on your networks. Of course, policies explicitly
forbidding the downloading and installation of any unauthorized software on a company computer and outlawing communicating using IMs are a good first line of defense.
Also, you should periodically examine employees' desktops to make sure nothing nefarious has been downloaded.
*Built for business*
Some businesses have found the IM communication format to be an effective way to connect their workforce. Those companies have installed enterprise IM systems that are built specifically for business applications.
Some providers offer customized IM approaches for particular industries or businesses. Obviously, your employees must be aware that the programs are much less like IMs and much more like standard e-mail because of monitoring and archiving.
*Let's just chat*
If employees feel compelled to engage in free-floating digital conversation and you have eliminated the IM route, they still can turn to Internet chat rooms, websites that allow users to communicate with other users in real time
(like IMs).
Some formats allow dozens of people to communicate at the same time and users to elect and invite users for more
private one-on-one chat sessions. The chats can be occurring while employees are on the job and using your technology and web connection.
Work with your IT department to block user access to the sites from your network. Again, you should explicitly include these chat rooms as prohibited sites in your company's electronic use policies.
*Mobile messaging*
Unfortunately, IMs are becoming just as popular in the ever more sophisticated world of mobile electronic devices. Microsoft has made the wireless market a major focus of its expansion efforts, and IM technology is a big part of the wireless strategy. It will be even easier for employees to have IM communications when they aren't at work or at home.
*Keeping out of IM trouble*
You will need to use a combination of comprehensive and effective policies, employee education, technological monitoring, and simple active observation to keep IMs from getting you or a member of your workplace in trouble.
