Seven bank workers within the past week have been fired by First Union Corporation for allegedly sending pornographic and other "inappropriate" e-mail, the Charlotte Observer reports.
The paper says workers at the University Research Park office of First Union circulated e-mail including videos of people having sex and other sexually oriented materials. Apparently, the e-mail was discovered only when the message volume became heavy enough to slow a server down.
The nation's sixth largest bank confirmed the firings last Friday but would not issue more details. Spokeswoman Sandy Deem says First Union won't tolerate "conduct that interferes with another person's work performance or creates an intimidating, offensive, or hostile environment."
This appears part of a growing trend among companies taking swift and often-severe action for e-mail policy violations. They want to protect themselves from legal claims of a hostile work environment, according to other published reports, with an increasing number of sexual harassment suits based in part on in-house e-mail usage's.
