Fired for Sending Personal E-Mails at Work?

You probably don`t think twice about sending personal messages through your work e-mail. But sending e-mails about a seemingly innocuous hobby cost one financial advisor his job when his employer tapped into his work account and read his messages.

Cameron Pettigrew, who worked as a client relations manager at Fidelity Investments in Texas, was fired after supervisors found out he was sending messages about a fantasy football league that he ran.

"Firing a guy for being in a $20 fantasy league?" Pettigrew told the Fort Worth Star Telegram. "Let`s be honest: that`s a complete overreaction."

Welcome to the realities of the cyber workspace. Pettigrew, a young MBA graduate, is just one of the most recent victims to find out the hard way that employers have almost limitless rights to check personal messages sent over company computers, cell phones and PDAs.

In fact, more than a quarter of companies have fired employees for misusing e-mail and one-third have fired employees for misusing the Internet, according to a survey by the American Management Association. The same survey found that 43 percent of employers read workers` e-mail messages and 66 percent check Web site connections.

sections: Society, Culture