PuNiaoPuNiao's Reading Room
Keep It Off the Record
by: PuNiaoPuNiao a.k.a CyberLoafer
If you must say something unflattering about a customer, be careful what medium you use.
An acquaintance of mine runs a company that counts big, litigation-happy American corporations among its business partners. He has said that if he discovers any of his employees sending e-mail - even privately - to their co-workers, referring to any of these important partners as "fools" or "idiots", he will immediately fire those employees. His reason: When all is well, much can be smoothed over; but once business partners fall out and contracts get scrutinized for loopholes that will allow one party to renege on previous agreements, each will dig out everything it can to prove that the other was not a supportive business partner and did not fulfil its end of the bargain. Employee e-mails that indicate contempt of the other company can be forwarded carelessly or dredged up by IT experts years after they have been deleted, and waved about in a court of law by the company's overpaid lawyers to support that allegation.
Read the rest of it @ http://www.socyberty.com/Advice/Keep-It-Off-the-Record.112202