Over one million people are thought to have seen an e-mail that originated on 7th December when Claire Swire sent a sex joke to her boyfriend, Bradley Chait, who qualified as a lawyer in September this year and works for London firm Norton Rose.
Bradley forwarded a subsequent comment on the joke by Claire as an apparent boast about his sex life to six friends in his office. He added his own comment, “now THAT’s a nice compliment from a lass, isn’t it?” One of the friends forwarded it to twelve others with the comment, “Beggars belief. I feel honour bound to circulate this.” From there, the e-mail message spiralled out of control, reaching the e-mail inboxes of countless office computers throughout the UK and beyond.
In a statement, his employers said:
“Norton Rose takes a robust approach to email abuse. The firm has clear rules that specifically prohibit the sending and receipt of non-work related material; in particular obscene, discriminatory or defamatory material and junk mail. These rules are included in the terms of employment for all our employees. Implementation of the firm's disciplinary procedures began as soon as the firm became aware of the circumstances.”
Bradley Chait told TheRegister.co.uk yesterday that the e-mail was a hoax. However, a spokeswoman for the firm confirmed to OUT-LAW.COM today that the e-mail is genuine and that the matter will be “privately resolved between Norton Rose and Brad.”
Last month, six employees were dismissed from Cable & Wireless for alleged misuse of the company’s e-mail system. Also in November, an engineering firm in Huddersfield won an industrial tribunal case following its dismissal of two employees for sending “smutty” e-mail jokes to several other staff.
Linda Molloy of OUT-LAW.COM said:
"We've all at some time received dodgy jokes by e-mail and there is always the temptation to forward them. But this case highlights the risks of forwarding them in breach of an existing office policy that forbids the practice and that breaching such a policy is not trivial.
"For any employers with such a policy in force, unless they act on identified abuses of the policy, that policy becomes worthless. This case is likely to be a harsh lesson to those affected."
See our guide on internet and e-mail policies.