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Leo Hamel Fine Jewelers Policy Letter

Rev2

Computers, E-Mail & Spam

E-mail is one of the main ways that we communicate with coworkers, vendors and customers. Because we rely so heavily on e-mail, it is critical that we follow certain rules the policies in order to protect ourselves as well as our network and computer systems.

Every e-mail that you write and send should be of the highest professional standards as it is a direct reflection on the company. All e-mails need to conform to any company policy.

  1. Do not send SPAM from your @leohamel.com email address. SPAM is unsolicited commercial e-mails. This means that you cannot send e-mail to someone who has never contacted us or done business with us before. Doing so is against California as well as many other state laws, and can inhibit our ability to communicate with of our customers if our server gets put on an email “black-list.”
  2. Do not publish your e-mail address on any open blog or webpage. Spammers crawl the internet searching for e-mail addresses, so if you post your e-mail address on a public webpage or blog, spammers will likely add you to their massive spam lists. Once you’re on a spam list, there is no way to get off of it and the only way to stop the spam is to retire that e-mail address for good.
  3. Language. It is strictly prohibited from using e-mail that contains defamatory, profane, obscene, tortious, discriminatory, offensive, threatening, sexual, or otherwise unlawful language. You may not distribute copyrighted material or company trade secrets or confidential information.
  4. Use caution! Never open an e-mail, especially an attachment to an e-mail if you are not expecting it. Spammers are good at designing fake e-mails to trick you into opening them and that will install any number of programs that can cause serious damage to our computers. While we have a firewall that attempts to filter these things out, there are always new viruses, scams, malware, scareware, phishing scams and so on that may not be automatically blocked.
  5. Just because it’s from someone you know, doesn’t mean it’s safe. If someone you know is infected with a virus or malware, that virus can read their e-mail address book and send you a fake message trying to get you to open it. For this reason, you should not open any attachments you are not expecting to receive. If something seems out of place, DO NOT OPEN IT. If you think something seems out of place, contact your network administrator immediately to have them inspect the suspicious message. It’s always better to error on the side of caution.
  6. Passwords. Keeping your password safe is extremely important. You are responsible for the e-mails that are sent from your account, and the only way to safeguard it is to never give your password out to anyone else. In the event that you need to give out your password for work-related reasons, contact the network administrator for assistance in changing your password. You should always follow the company’s password policy and only give out your password to authorized persons as specified by the password policy.
  7. Do not use your business e-mail account for personal or non-work-related purposes. Email is easy to send but it is in effect the same as writing an official letter from Leo Hamel Fine Jewelers. What is said in e-mail is a permanent reflection on the Company so be mindful that it is always professional.
  8. Do not access your personal e-mail from work. With web-based e-mail services, it is easy to access your personal e-mail from work. This is the same as browsing the Internet for non-work related items and is prohibited. If you must access your personal e-mail while at work, you may request the use of it during your break time for pressing matters only.
  9. Monitoring. It is not only the responsibility of the employee to conform to company policies and use e-mail and the Internet for work-related business only; it is also the responsibility of the employer to supervise these activities. It is the right and duty of Leo Hamel Fine Jewelers to monitor e-mail, internet, network, and any use of company-owned computer or other assets. Any e-mail, internet activity, or computer activity that you perform while working here is not confidential. These activities are stored for the legal protection of the Company.
  10. Browsing history. It is not permitted for any employee to delete the browsing history on a company computer. Deleting the browsing history will be considered presumed evidence of personal use of company computers and carry the same potential for disciplinary action up to and including termination.
  11. THERE IS ONE COMPUTER SET UP IN THE BREAK ROOM FOR EMPLOYEE USE. On that computer only, you may access personal email or internet activity only during breaks. All the other computer rules apply to that computer as well.
  12. Do not subscribe to emails that don’t relate directly to your current job. Even industry news emails are generally a waste of time. If you are actually learning something from every one of the emails that applies directly to how you perform your job, or getting information that effects how you perform tasks on a daily basis, then it is allowable. Generally, it’s better to bookmark the website and consult it when you have specific questions. Don’t subscribe just because you find it interesting and like to read, or think you are keeping up with industry news. Those kinds of subscriptions should be done from your personal email account and read after work for fun.
  13. When you receive emails that are subscriptions or junk mail, use the unsubscribe link to get removed from the mailing list. That way, these emails don’t clutter up your mailbox, take up your valuable time, and prevent you from getting to the really important emails that are part of your job.

See additional policies in the Employee Handbook and company policies regarding computer and email use for more information.

Leo Hamel, Founder