we knew this already!

Londoners have emerged as the most immoral users of email in the country, regularly indulging in behaviour which would make even Jo Moore blush, according to a survey published today. While dastardly email dealings eventually cost the transport secretary Stephen Byers' special adviser her job, most London employees questioned admitted using office emails to backstab their colleagues and more than a third said they had distributed offensive material from their desks.

White collar workers in seven other cities fared only marginally better, prompting calls for the office email culture to be reformed.

Across the country, almost 30% of respondents to the NOP email ethics survey admitted sending racist, sexist or pornographic messages at work. Almost 40% said they used email to further their own careers at the expense of colleagues.

London-based workers topped both categories, with 55% admitting using email to undermine their colleagues.

Workers in Manchester tied with counterparts in London in their willingness to distribute offensive material, with 36% of respondents in each city admitting behaviour which risked legal action against themselves and their employers.

By contrast, Liverpudlians emerged as the most clean-living email users. Only 29% said they would use it to backstab their workmates and 18% said they had sent offensive messages. The culture gap between Liverpool and London is underlined by respondents' attitude to colleagues who hide behind email to avoid dealing with sensitive issues in person: while Londoners were the least likely to object to this behaviour, it was cited most often by those in Liverpool as the thing they hated most about email.

Martino Corbelli, of the internet filtering company SurfControl, which commissioned the survey, said workers across the country should hang their heads in shame at the results.

"This has to be a wake-up call for the UK. It is not as if this sort of thing didn't happen before but email has made it much easier for people to behave improperly. Liverpool might have done better than the rest but it is still only the best of a bad bunch." He called on companies to lay down clear rules about email use by their staff. "This is a fantastic communication tool but its growth raises serious issues. Too few companies have written policies laying out exactly what is and what is not acceptable."

-- Anonymous, March 05, 2002

Answers

Typical, but somebody has to take notice of any backstabbing e-mail for the backstab to be effective, so I can't see many companies giving a cleanup more than lip service.

A great way to divide and conquer, I'd say. Do yourself a favour and shop you workmates.

As for the porn etc, that's just sad bastard supply and demand, surely.

-- Anonymous, March 05, 2002

London is full of nervous, evil back stabbers, Literally.

-- Anonymous, March 05, 2002

I didn't think Jo Moore's email was a case of dastardly dealings. If anything it was clear strategic political thinking. The dastardly thing was to backstab her by leaking the news.

And I don't know anyone who would openly admit to sending racist emails. Unless that includes jokes, which would be ridiculous. Martino Cobelli should f**k right off with his Internet policing nonsense. Just who elected him moral guardian of the workplace?

-- Anonymous, March 05, 2002

Cobelli's just selling his product using scare tactics. He probably worked on the Year 2000 project as well.

-- Anonymous, March 05, 2002

I didn't think Jo Moore's email was a case of dastardly dealings.

Democracy works best in an environment of truth. Only then can the people make informed choices. "Burying" information, therefore, is indeed dastardly dealings. I'm not bothered that it was 11/9 that was used, government information should not be concealed in this manner. I don't mind "spin" or as I prefer to call it "interpretation" as the story will be spun in different directions by the various political factions and it is then for me to use my judgement, but the deliberate hiding of information is reprehensible.

-- Anonymous, March 05, 2002