Every third Russian company reads employees' emails, every fifth keeps track of what websites they visit, every tenth monitors correspondence in instant messengers. Even not very wealthy organizations have access to tools that allow real-time control of everything that happens on computers and mobile devices employees. It doesn’t matter if these are business or personal gadgets. There is only one exception - talking on a mobile phone. But technologies that will allow them to be intercepted are already being tested. The authors and lobbyists of the Yarovaya package can only dream of such a thing. "Secret" asked an expert in the field of information security about how corporate surveillance tools work and whether they are all legal.
How are they being watched
The software that monitors employees and controls their actions makes the information available to the employer immediately - it is not stored in any encrypted form. Such software operates locally and is in no way associated with either operators or providers.
Firstly, these are the so-called agent programs that are installed on computers and read keystrokes, take screenshots, and record all Internet traffic. There are hundreds of such programs on the market, as they are relatively easy to write. I will give a few examples.
PC Pandora - hides in the system and controls the entire computer and all Internet traffic. Takes screenshots, captures keyboard input, actions on visited websites, monitors email, instant messages of instant messengers and collects much more information about the user's work. The program does not have a folder in which it stores its data. Everything is loaded into operating system, and each new installation to the same or different computer is produced with new file names.
SniperSpy - monitors a remote computer in real time, takes pictures of the user from the computer's webcam, records sounds in the room where the computer is installed, views file system, remotely downloads files, scans and deletes system processes, and performs other standard spyware functions.
Micro Keylogger is a spyware that is not visible in the menu, taskbar, program control panel, process list and other places on the computer where it is possible to monitor running applications. It does not show signs of presence and does not affect system performance, it secretly sends a report to an email or FTP server.
Secondly, there is DLP (Data Leak Prevention) - technologies for preventing leaks of confidential information from an information system to the outside world (and technical devices for this task). DLP systems analyze data flows crossing the perimeter of the protected information system. If confidential information is found in the stream, the active component of the system is triggered and the transmission of the message (packet, stream, session) is blocked.
Such solutions control the flow that enters, exits and circulates in the perimeter. Now we are talking about office space. Physically, this is a regular server (or a group of servers) that analyzes all office traffic. DLP systems, using packet inspection (DPI) technologies, read not only the message headers, where it is written to whom the letter should go, but also all transmitted data in general.
Such systems usually operate in two modes: monitoring and blocking. In the first case, the system simply monitors and sends suspicious things to the employee responsible for security, and he reads it and decides whether it is good or bad. In the second case, the system is configured to block certain things. For example, all messages containing medical terms - for this, medical dictionaries are loaded into the system. Or all messages that contain passport details, credit card information, any conditions you can imagine. You are trying to send a message with words that the security policy does not allow, and this message is simply not sent for you.
Finally, there is special programs, which prevent files from being moved to any medium, be it a flash drive, hard drive, or anything else. Most of these programs are part of big system security and modern solutions DLP. Usually, protections are combined, because none protects against all threats.
As for personal devices in the office, they often try to ban home laptops, they can be detected using the Network Admisson Control class appliance (for example, Cisco ISE). NAC is a set of technical means and measures that provide network access control based on information about the user and the state of the computer accessing the network. Such systems immediately see and block the "foreign" computer. Even if there is no such system, using the DLP system, you can still track what has gone beyond the perimeter from any computer in the office network.
If a person works remotely all the time, it is impossible to put anything on his personal computer. Another thing is if an employee does something on his home computer, and then connects to the corporate system from home. For such cases, there are solutions to control privileged users (CyberArk, Wallix). They allow you to monitor what the user is doing while working from home, recording the session on equipment within the controlled area. This, of course, is only about computers that remotely interact with the enterprise network.
If you take a working laptop home, the information will also be read. You can install a system that locally saves all the data and then, as soon as a person comes to work and connects a computer to the system, they are immediately considered.
Surveillance extends beyond computers. If you surf the Internet from your phone through a working Wi-Fi, the system perceives it as a regular computer, another node. Anything you send via WhatsApp or any of the most secure apps can be read. Previously, DLP solutions did not handle encrypted traffic well, but modern systems can read almost anything.
As for mobile communications, so far the calls are not monitored in any way. But here Natalya Kasperskaya acted as an innovator and offers to listen to the conversations of employees in the company's perimeter. With the advent of such a system, with any phone that falls within the perimeter, it will be possible to do anything. Kaspersky says that employers will only monitor work phones. But who can guarantee this? And now companies say that they only monitor official correspondence, but in fact, everything is often controlled. It seems to me that Kaspersky's proposal is an obvious overkill. On the other hand, we see that the world is moving towards the maximum restriction of personal freedoms - and, in my opinion, nothing can be done about this.
Legal grounds
Our legislation does not seem to give anyone the right to read someone else's correspondence. According to Article 23 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, a citizen has the right to privacy of correspondence, telephone conversations, postal, telegraphic and other messages, and restriction of this right is allowed only on the basis of a court decision. In addition, there is Article 138 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which introduces criminal liability for violation of this secret (fine or corrective labor).
However, employers believe that surveillance of employees is legal and even necessary. They proceed from the fact that corporate mail belongs to the company and should be used only to perform official duties (by paying the employee a salary, the employer, in fact, rents his time).
The company pays for Internet traffic used by an employee for personal purposes during working hours. That is, even if a person communicates via personal mail or instant messengers using a working laptop or via a working Wi-Fi, such actions are considered as satisfaction of personal needs at the expense of the organization.
The employer will suffer losses in the event of data leakage, therefore, explaining the need for surveillance, companies refer to the law "On trade secrets" and, in particular, article 10, which regulates measures to protect confidential information.
How surveillance is regulated
Roughly speaking, all correspondence carried out with the help of funds belonging to the organization and through communication channels paid for by it is official - even if it is conducted after hours. Therefore, if you use a work computer or a working Wi-Fi (even through a personal computer) - this is already a necessary condition for surveillance.
Working hours are not regulated in any way, usually the monitoring system is never turned off. After all, any more or less competent employee can set up the system so that after he leaves work, a letter will be sent to the post office, where he will merge everything that he wanted to merge. Why do we need a system if there is such a huge hole in it?
Employee Consent
By law, an employee cannot be unaware that he is being followed. Lawyers believe that the use of control programs is legal only if there is an appropriate agreement between the employee and the employer. Usually, when applying for a job, they sign an employment contract, which says that official correspondence will be controlled: lawyers include a clause in the contract according to which the employer reserves the right to control the activities of employees during working hours. There are separate NDA agreements that define confidential information.
The charters of organizations, as a rule, indicate that the company is the owner of all material, technical, informational and intellectual resources, including official correspondence, which is carried out by employees of the organization using all these means. In addition, organizations usually have a trade secret regime. If a security system is introduced at an existing enterprise, all employees are given the relevant documents to sign.
If the employee is a freelancer, a work contract is concluded with him and the corresponding clause is prescribed in it. If the contract is not concluded, which happens often with us, and surveillance is carried out, then the law is, of course, violated. There are also freelancers who work by the hour on freelance exchanges like Odesk and Elance. These exchanges require freelancers to install software that takes screenshots every 5-10 minutes. This allows the employer to understand that the paid time was spent on work and not on something else.
The employee is informed about surveillance, but no one is obliged to explain the mechanisms in detail. “Dear, your mail, your messages, your visits to sites are controlled by the system, so be careful” - no one will ever say that. Even if you drink beer with a security officer, he will not disclose the scheme, because this would be a violation of his official duties.
They sometimes also issue a guarantee, and they don’t say directly: “Come on, you agree to view all your correspondence,” but in a different way: “Come on, you sign a guarantee that the company will check e-mail for any malware, pornography, messages, revealing trade secrets. Just so you don't get into some bad situation through no fault of your own." But so competently we rarely do.
A person always has a choice: he can agree to be supervised or look for another job. Without the knowledge of the employee, he will be followed only if he is suspected of something, but this is already illegal.
What does the company do with the data it receives?
Companies don't read all employees' emails daily. Yes, in a small company, the director can see and read everything, but in big companies the system is configured for critical things: keywords, types of files, types of information.
Usually a security expert immediately sees critical threats: he has a tape of everything that happens, and in this tape ordinary messages are highlighted in green, and when red lights up, he immediately pays attention and starts checking. That is, if you are on Facebook during work, the likelihood that a security worker will read your correspondence is not very high. Of course, if the company does not consider Facebook communication to be a critical threat.
How long the collected information is stored depends on the security policy and the capacity of the equipment. Small companies can keep information on the server for years, but larger companies usually have it for a few months. Although it does not even depend on the number of employees, but rather on the volume of traffic. There are a lot of accountants in one company, and they get out on the Web once a day. In another, people constantly work on the Internet: they correspond, monitor sites.
Based on the data received, the employer can fire. But it usually ends with dismissal of one's own free will or by agreement of the parties. The employee is gently blackmailed: “Come on, you better leave in a good way, because we can sue.”
Can an employee detect surveillance
With sufficient skill, a worker can detect spyware agents or programs to prevent transfer to media that are installed on a computer. They, of course, do not lie in those folders where the programs are located. But if the worker is literate, he can find them.
But DLP workers cannot detect in any way, because the systems are not installed on computers, they are on the perimeter. If you want privacy, the only option is to use a phone in the office for personal correspondence and not connect it to the company network.
Can surveillance be contested?
As I said, usually employers give the following arguments in favor of surveillance: this is official correspondence, and it has nothing to do with Article 23 of the Constitution; if the employee has given consent, there are no violations; all correspondence of the employee is the property of the enterprise; trade secret law allows you to do everything. In fact, all these claims can be challenged in court.
Firstly, the secrecy of correspondence extends to both private and official correspondence, and the employer cannot directly obtain permission from the employee to read all correspondence, not limited by time or other factors.
Secondly, you cannot simply force employees to write a receipt stating that they are familiar with the fact that all their mail, including personal, will be read and sanctions will follow, up to and including dismissal.
Thirdly, it is impossible to recognize all correspondence of an employee as the property of the enterprise, because there is a right to an e-mail - this is a copyright. A competent worker can hire a lawyer and say: “And this literary work, it is subject to copyright, it is the result of my intellectual activity, it belongs to me. The court may well take his side if a good lawyer works with him.
Finally, it is impossible to recognize all personal correspondence as containing commercial secrets.
In an ideal situation, the employee and the employer understand that they are doing a common thing, find the right solutions and fix them in mutually beneficial agreements. But of course life is different.
Whose surveillance is more effective - business or the state
Now companies monitor employees in such a way that the state only dreams of such control, but cannot put it into practice. The state will not insert spyware into every computer and is unlikely to cope with such a volume of information at all.
When an enterprise protects its perimeter, it is clear what it is trying to achieve - restricting the dissemination of information that is critical to it. The state has not formulated this task, the state says: “But we just want to know and read everything in general.” The state does not know how to do this, because it cannot build the intellectual systems it needs.
Then the state comes in from the other side - and the "Yarovaya package" appears. The state, as it were, says to telecom operators: “We cannot build the necessary system, so let’s keep all the data so that we can come to you in case of anything, download everything and see what happened there for a long time” . This requires a huge amount of money. This really affects the personal safety of citizens very much.
If you compare the systems that need to be built on a national scale with the systems that businesses have today, it turns out that the authorities are trying to build a giant aircraft for 100,000 passengers instead of the usual one. What businesses have today flies great, but at the same time it carries 100, 200, 500 or several thousand people. What should an airplane for 100,000 people look like? What airport can he take off from? Nobody answers these questions. In my opinion, this is another unnecessary project.
If you take this seriously, you need to build an intelligent system that will indicate critical actions, and in real time, and not store a huge amount of data that no one can process. But it would be better, of course, that the state did not read our correspondence at all without a court decision. The employee allows the company to monitor his letters and messages, because the company pays him money. And the state, on the contrary, is paid by the citizen. So this state should report to us, instead of stealing and watching, no matter how someone shakes the boat.
Cover photo: Tim Taddler / Getty Images
Communication by e-mail is an integral part of the work of any modern office worker. And accountants are no exception. How to conduct correspondence in such a way that business communication is productive, emotionally comfortable and extremely ethical? I offer readers some practical advice.
TIP 1. Do not neglect in your letters a personal appeal to the addressee
Thus, you will demonstrate your attention to the personality of a person. If the letter is written to a specific recipient, then the absence of a personal appeal in it looks incorrect and impolite.
When you write one of the first letters to the addressee, the question often arises: how best to address him - just by name or by name and patronymic? In this case, you need to look at what is written in the signature that ends the letter of this person to you. If the name is indicated there (without patronymic), for example "Svetlana Kotova" then feel free to call by name. And if the signature says "Svetlana Vasilievna Kotova, chief accountant of Trenzor LLC", then you need to address the addressee accordingly. In any case, the second option is extremely correct, and therefore win-win.
I do not recommend focusing on the information in the "From" field. Indeed, often it is initially filled not by the owner of the email address, but by the IT specialist of the company when setting up email.
By the way, when addressing a business partner or client, I strongly advise you not to use the short form of the name (“Sash” instead of “Sasha”, “An” instead of “Anya”), no matter how democratic the writing style is and no matter how long your correspondence. What is familiar in oral speech, in writing looks too plain.
TIP 2. Pay special attention to the shape of the greeting
Do not use the phrase "Good day!". Even if you are guided by the good intention of matching the time zone of the addressee, this phrase sounds tasteless, I would even say vulgar. It is better to use neutral options: "Hello...", "Good afternoon...". And of course, add the name of the addressee to the greeting, if you know it. For me personally, for example, it is much more pleasant instead of a faceless "Hello!" get personal "Hello, Tamara!".
Remember that in this way you greatly save the addressee's time. After all, he will be able to immediately assess the content of the received letter and quickly decide on its priority and importance.
The wording of the topic should be brief, but at the same time accurately reflect the subject of the correspondence. For example, “Agreement, invoice, act from Alfa LLC” instead of Documents. As aspects of the issue under discussion change, add clarification to the topic. For example, “Cooperation with Perm” → “Cooperation with Perm. Date of negotiations” → “Cooperation with Perm. Draft agreement".
If during the correspondence you see that the “Subject” field is filled in by your recipient arbitrarily or not filled in at all, take the initiative in your own hands and try one of two scenarios.
SCENARIO 1. When answering, fill in the "Subject" field yourself. If the addressee is attentive, perhaps this will already be enough to bring your correspondence into an adequate form.
SCENARIO 2. If the recipient continues to ignore filling in the "Subject" field, write him a letter with the following content: “Alla, I suggest that you immediately indicate the subject of the letter in the “Subject” field. I think this way we will significantly increase the effectiveness of our communication.”.
TIP 4. Pay attention to the "To" and "Cc" fields
You need to clearly understand the purpose of these fields generally accepted in the business environment:
- <если>in the “To” field only you appear - this means that the sender of the letter is waiting for a response from you to his question or request;
- <если>there are several recipients in the field - the sender is waiting for a response from each or from any of the recipients. In this case, when replying, save the list of recipients set by the sender using the "Reply to all" function (of course, provided that you intentionally do not want to reply only to the author of the letter, hiding the essence of your answer from the rest of the participants in the correspondence);
- <если>your name appears in the "Copy" field - the sender wants you to be aware of the issue, while he does not expect an answer from you. So, you should not enter into correspondence on this issue. If you still decide to do this, then it will be a sign of good form to start writing one of the phrases: “If possible, I would like to join the discussion of this issue ...”, "Let me give you my opinion...".
As far as the BCC field is concerned, it is the most controversial e-mail tool from a business ethics point of view. Sometimes it is perceived as a tool of almost secret surveillance and information. After all, the recipients placed in the "Bcc" are not visible to other recipients. In some, usually large companies, especially scrupulous in matters of ethics, it is strictly forbidden to use this field in corporate correspondence, except for mass mailings. But in most companies they use it, observing the following rules:
- sending a letter with the "Bcc" field filled in implies that the author of the letter has notified the hidden recipients (or is going to do so) about the reason and purpose of such a form of message;
- the hidden addressee does not need to enter into correspondence.
At trainings, I am often asked the question: are there any generally accepted standards regarding the time during which it is necessary to respond to a letter from a client or colleague? But there is no universal answer to it.
If we talk about internal correspondence, everything here is determined by the speed and rhythm of the life of the company itself. There are firms in which a delay in responding for more than an hour and a half is considered bad manners. And somewhere the answer within a day is in the order of things.
By general rule The most acceptable response time to a letter is within 2-3 hours. This is the so-called comfortable waiting time, when the sender is waiting for an answer and does not experience internal discomfort from the silence of his addressee.
But what if, having received and read the letter, you understand that you cannot give a full answer to it within 24 hours? Then, according to the rules of good manners, notify the sender of your receipt of the letter and the approximate timing of the response to it. For example: “Hello, Sergey Vasilyevich! Your letter has been received. I will answer in the next couple of days” or “Andrey, I received the letter. Thank you! I need more information to answer. I'll try to answer as soon as possible....
TIP 6. Follow the basic rules for submitting information in a letter
There are not many of them:
- when reading a letter, the most comfortable volume fits "on one screen", maximum - on an A4 page;
- the size of the sent attachments should not exceed 3 MB. Larger files can lead to "hanging" mail at the addressee;
- when "packing" attachments, use universal zip or rar encodings. Other extensions may be blocked or cut off in transit and create problems for the recipient;
- never start a reply as a new email (without saving the history of the correspondence). Otherwise, the recipient will be forced to spend time looking for the original message;
- write in a language that is most understandable to the addressee. Many people wonder if it is appropriate to use professional or corporate vocabulary, slang, abbreviations and anglicisms.
In each case, this must be decided separately.
So, intra-corporate correspondence in a company is almost always replete with slang and abbreviations: they are familiar and understandable to all participants and save time. But you need to be careful when using them in correspondence with counterparties.
There was such a case in my practice. A colleague was preparing materials for a publishing house and in the last letter she wrote: “Masha, please send all your asap materials”. Masha decided that this was a designation of a format unknown to her, into which the text needed to be translated. She killed a lot of time, by hook or by crook, figuring out how to satisfy the publisher's request. Imagine Machine's annoyance when, 2 days later, she learns that the cryptic "asap" is an abbreviation of the widely used in the English-speaking environment "as soon as possible" ("as soon as possible"). But Masha could send materials within half an hour from the moment she received the request!
TIP 7. End each letter with a block of your signature and your contacts
Regardless of how closely you know the addressee and how long your correspondence has been going on, each of your letters should contain a block consisting of a signature and contact information. It is an integral part of the culture of business communication.
The block must contain:
- your first and last name. There is no need to use abbreviations. Instead of “T.L. Vorotyntsev" in my signature I indicate "Tamara Leonidovna Vorotyntseva" or "Tamara Vorotyntseva" so that the addressee understands how to contact me in a response letter;
- your position. This gives the addressee the opportunity to understand the boundaries of your authority and professional competence in resolving issues;
- contact details (phone, email, company name, website). So you will provide the addressee with the possibility of additional operational communication if necessary.
I would like to add to all that has been said: your e-mails are the very clothes by which they are greeted. In other words, observing the etiquette of business correspondence, you will make the most pleasant impression on your addressee in absentia.
Success in the activities of any organization, commercial firm or enterprise is inextricably linked with a culture of behavior and etiquette. All actions of the manager, employees must certainly take into account the rules of good taste and correspond to the situation.
One of the most important parts of etiquette is business correspondence.
It is estimated that almost 50% of the time at work falls on familiarity with papers and mail. But this is necessary, since competent business correspondence can significantly increase the company's turnover, speed up the interaction of different services and departments.
Of course, there are certain patterns here, and they will definitely be discussed in this article. The rules of business correspondence have long been standardized. The existing GOST R.6.30-2003 will help to correctly place the text on the sheet, tell you what indents, margins, fonts to make. Business correspondence is characterized by the uniformity and repetition of speech turns.
However, every letter is different. big imprint it is imposed by the identity of the sender, his position, situation and addressee. To some extent, business correspondence is a combination of creativity and painstaking work.
Types of business correspondence
Document flow is carried out on paper and via e-mail.
All correspondence in the enterprise can be conditionally divided into the following groups:
Official / unofficial correspondence;
Internal and external.
Official correspondence includes commercial offers, letters of thanks and guarantees, trade agreements, orders for the enterprise, official duties, requests, demands, claims.
Informal correspondence is various congratulations of business partners, customers, employees; condolences, apologies, invitations and thanks.
Internal documents circulate only between departments of one enterprise, while external documents go beyond it.
Business Correspondence Rules: Inside Content
The main requirement is brevity and capacity of the letter. Do not stretch the text over several pages. Your best bet is to stick with one.
The rules of business correspondence involve the exclusion of complex, incomprehensible, foreign and highly specialized words and expressions from the text. All sentences should be short, with the main thoughts of the author and without "water".
Avoid double interpretations in the letter, otherwise, if disputes arise, it will be more difficult to defend your point of view and prove what you meant by a certain phrase.
The rules of registration of business correspondence oblige the writer to call the addressee by name and patronymic, before which to indicate the appeal "Dear (s) ...". And always on "You", even if the recipient of the letter has a good friendly relationship.
In the introduction, in addition to indicating the surname and name, the main purpose of the message is prescribed. Examples of business correspondence know enough templates and stamps for such cases: “In connection with the previous letter ...”, “We remind you ...”, “We inform you ...” and others.
Soften the answer that is unfavorable for the recipient (refusal of the offer, refusal of cooperation) with the phrases: “Unfortunately, we will not be able to use the proposed conditions ...” or similar.
External paperwork documentation
Any business letter must be written on company letterhead with company details and all contact details.
Be sure to put down the exact date document.
The upper right corner of the sheet is occupied by the initials of the addressee and the address of the recipient company.
Break the text into semantic paragraphs so that it is easier for the reader to understand and perceive it. No more than 4-5 lines.
Writing all words in capital (capital) letters is a bad form.
Documents may be attached to the letter. In this case, they are listed on a separate line in the lower left part of the sheet. By business etiquette a response to the letter must be received within 10 days. If the problem requires more time to solve it, the addressee must notify about it.
After writing, be sure to carefully check the text again for errors, both spelling and grammatical. If you have time, you should put the letter aside and return to it again later. As a rule, inaccuracies will be discovered that were not noticed at first. This advice is most important when responding to a customer complaint. You should not annoy a person even more with an illiterate letter.
When the document is written and checked a couple of times, print it out on A4 paper. This size is standardly used for any correspondence, even if the text itself takes up only half of the page.
Check the ink in the printer before printing to avoid smudges and sloppiness.
In some cases, you can attach your business card to the document, and attach the printed sheet itself to a transparent file.
A corporate envelope with the company logo is also considered good form.
The rules for conducting business correspondence in an informal plane are often more emotional than in business papers, and less stamped. Abbreviations are appropriate here, the use of colorful adjectives, for example, in congratulations: amazing, sympathetic, kind.
business emails
The fact that you do not send correspondence in an envelope through the postal network should not relax. The rules of business correspondence apply in these cases as well.
Competent and correct electronic business messages create a positive image of both the enterprise and the individual. Reputation in business is worth a lot!
Basic rules for e-mail correspondence
Use your work email address only for its intended purpose.
Pay attention to the name of the mailbox. Do not allow incorrect names such as "baby", "superman" when working, even if they are indicated in the English transcription.
Always fill in the "subject" column, otherwise your letter may end up in spam. Descriptions like "plan", "list", "offer", "report" will not work. There may be quite a lot of similar letters in your recipient's mailbox. Be as specific as possible about what your message is about. Do not use more than five words. Write the subject with a capital letter. You don't need to put a dot at the end.
If you are replying to an email you received earlier, be sure to remove the "Re" in the subject line.
Communication style
Keep the business letter format. Remove the threatening, begging, commanding tone.
The rules of electronic business correspondence do not allow the use of emoticons, a large number of question or exclamation marks in the text.
Be polite. A mandatory greeting at the beginning and farewell to the interlocutor at the end is a good form. For example, "With respect ..." or like this: "Sincerely yours ...".
Business email and its Golden Rule»: do not mix several different topics in one message. It is better to send a series of letters.
An email should be twice as short as a paper one.
Working with attachments
If there is too much information to send, do not put it all in the body of the letter, but attach it as separate documents in an attachment.
For the convenience of the recipient, rename the documents you have prepared to names that are understandable to him. This will show your interest and win you over. Think about how many working folders the recipient has on his computer and how he will search for your letter among them.
Be sure to tell the recipient about the files you are sending so that he does not consider them an accidental virus. Archive large documents.
And it is best to send too large attachments (from 200 kb) in other ways, for example, via an ftp server.
Format such as COM, EXE, CMD, PIF and a number of others, some mail servers do not allow and block.
If there were several recipients of your letter, do not be too lazy to delete all evidence of mass forwarding each time. Such extra information is not needed by the addressee at all. The "blind copy" command will help you.
The rules for conducting business correspondence by e-mail involve informing the second party about the receipt of correspondence. If on this moment there is no opportunity to answer, notify the interlocutor about this. Save the history of correspondence to avoid further questions and proceedings.
If the response is important and urgent, it is allowed to additionally notify the addressee by phone, Skype or ICQ. If even after this a positive result could not be achieved, remind yourself again.
It is not uncommon for a request for a document to return an empty letter with an attached file. It is unacceptable. Examples of business correspondence require the mandatory placement of relevant information in the body of the document. For example, this: "I am sending the necessary data to your request."
Do not forget to indicate the coordinates at the end of the letter: all available means of communication, position, company website, links to social networks.
When writing the contacts of the organization, give as much information as possible - a phone number with an area code, an address with a zip code. After all, your communication takes place not only with the inhabitants of your region. If you have all the data, it will be easier to contact you.
And the last rule: whoever started the correspondence must end the electronic dialogue.
Conclusion
Business writing is a delicate matter. Sometimes one glance is enough to form a definite opinion about a person and the organization he represents. Knowledge of the rules business letter can greatly help in your career.
An employer can invite you for an interview using several methods on the hh.ru website.
An important condition: the employer must have a “verified” mark and access to the resume database (to the contacts of applicants).
The first way: call the phone number that is listed on your resume.
Second way: write an email message yourself (from your email address).
The third way: take advantage of the site's features. This can be an email and/or a message to a phone number, depending on what priority type of communication you indicated in your resume.
If your CV lists email as the preferred form of communication, you will receive an invitation from the employer in the form of an email message.
A standard email message is sent on behalf of hh.ru.
The employer, at his discretion, can change the text of the letter, depending on the needs.
If your phone number is listed as your preferred mode of contact on your resume, you will receive an invitation from the employer by e-mail plus an additional message will be sent to the phone number.
A message to the phone can come through different channels:
- We do not know about the existence of your social media account, we send a message to your phone number. If you received a message from us, it means that the VKontakte social network has confirmed the existence of an active account on the site.
- And even after you receive / read the message, we will not know about your page, we only know the status of message delivery to the phone number.
- The message will come from our official group https://vk.com/headhunter.
- You will receive a message if you have been online in the last 7 days. If not, SMS will come.
- A message will come to you if you have not classified your page, namely the communication settings (who can send messages).
- We will not spam you with unnecessary messages. Interview invitations only.
- If it is inconvenient for you to receive messages in VK, you can unsubscribe in the dialog box and you will receive SMS.
45% of users who received a message from us through social network"VKontakte", read it within the first hour after receiving it and could easily see information about the proposed vacancy. Stay in touch!
Once you've received an invitation from an employer, you'll see a message box on the specific job application page.
You can write a message to the employer in response to his invitation: to answer that you will come for an interview, or to clarify the location map or ask other additional questions.
Please note that the ability to write a message disappears if:
- The job has been archived
- the employer has disabled the possibility of correspondence for this vacancy (he may not enable it initially or disable it during the selection process),
- you have already written 5 messages, but the employer has not yet responded,
- the total number of messages with this employer for this job has reached 100.
The employer, in turn, can also write to you after he sent you an invitation to a vacancy (in response to your response or being interested in your resume).
The presence of new messages in correspondence with the employer on a specific vacancy is already noticeable on the "My responses" page in personal account: the green counter at the top counts all new events (invitation, refusal, message from the employer). Also, any such event will be highlighted in color until you view it. In addition, notification of each new message from the employer on a specific vacancy comes to your email.
Neither the employer nor the applicant can write more than five messages in a row until they receive a response from the recipient.
When the employer reads your message, you will see the "Read" status next to the last message in the conversation.
The main question: the employer has suspicions that the employee is in correspondence with competitors. Is it possible to bypass the constitutionally guaranteed right to privacy of correspondence? Solution: the employer has the right to view employee messages sent from work (corporate) mail. However, this right does not work automatically - it must be provided for in a local regulatory act.
Employers often have the question of how to legally establish control over the use of corporate electronic mailbox by employees. Such a desire is quite justified: it is important for the employer to identify cases where an employee disseminates confidential or other information (including trade secrets), the disclosure of which may harm the company. There are other reasons for the need to control electronic correspondence. For example, to limit or suppress the use of a mailbox for personal or other non-work-related purposes, as well as to monitor employee compliance with corporate loyalty and ethics rules when corresponding with customers. This article is about how to legally monitor employee email. Employer's Right to View Employees' Emails The problem of controlling employees' emails is ambiguous. On the one hand, the employer is the owner of the computers, e-mail server, Internet access points. From this follows the right of the company to control the process of use by employees of property belonging to it in accordance with its intended purpose (part 2 of article 209 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). In addition, one of the employer's labor obligations is the obligation to provide the employee with equipment, tools, technical documentation and other means necessary for him to perform his labor duties (Article 22 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). This obligation of the employer corresponds to the obligation of the employee to conscientiously fulfill his labor duties assigned to him. employment contract, while observing the rules of internal labor regulations (Article 21, Part 1, Article 189 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). Violation of the secrecy of correspondence using one's official position may result in a fine in the amount of 100,000 to 300,000 rubles or in the amount of the wage or other income of the convicted person for a period of one to two years, or deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a period of two to five years, or compulsory labor for up to 480 hours, or forced labor for up to four years, or arrest for up to four months, or imprisonment for up to four years (Part 2, Article 138 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). But, on the other hand, Article 23 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation guarantees the right of everyone to inviolability of private life, secrecy of correspondence, telegraph and other communications. The same principle of protection of communication secrecy is implemented in the norms of Article 63 of the Federal Law of July 7, 2003 No. 126-FZ “On Communications” and Article 138 of the Criminal Code, which establishes criminal liability for violating the secrecy of correspondence, telephone conversations, postal, telegraphic or other messages. Restriction of the secrecy of correspondence is allowed only in cases provided for by federal laws. Therefore, when deciding on the legality of controlling the corporate correspondence of employees, it is necessary to understand where the boundary lies between the private life of an employee and his work responsibilities when it comes to messages that he exchanges from corporate mail. ECtHR approach. In 2007, the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Copland v. the United Kingdom ruled on April 3, 2007 No. 62617/00 (Copland v. United Kingdom), in which it concluded that an employer cannot control the electronic correspondence of employees if a number of conditions. It should be borne in mind that Russian courts of general jurisdiction, when making decisions, must take into account the acts of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as the ECHR), which interpret the provisions of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms to be applied in this case. This is indicated in paragraph 4 of the decision of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of December 19, 2003 No. 23 “On the Judgment”. In Copland v. the United Kingdom, the circumstances were as follows: the applicant worked at a British college as a personal assistant to a principal. At the request of the Deputy Director, controls were placed on her use of telephone, e-mail and the Internet. According to the employer, this was to ensure that she did not use college equipment for personal purposes. The monitoring of e-mail usage consisted in the analysis of addresses, dates and times when e-mails were sent. At the same time, the rules for such control in the college were not developed, and this situation was not regulated in the legislation either. But when considering the case, the ECtHR stated: “Telephone calls from office premises are covered by the concepts of “private life” and “correspondence”. It follows a logical conclusion that e-mails sent from work should be protected in the same way as information obtained as a result of monitoring personal use of the Internet. Thus, the ECtHR has extended the constitutional principles of respect for the secrecy of correspondence and privacy when using the Internet and electronic correspondence outside the labor relations to similar actions performed during those hours when the employee performs or must perform work duties. An interesting question Is it legal to dismiss an employee for spreading trade secrets if this fact was established when viewing his personal (not corporate) mail? No, it's illegal. If information about the transfer of information containing commercial secrets was obtained by the employer as a result of unauthorized access to the employee's personal mail, then such evidence will be considered received in violation of the principles of secrecy of correspondence and will not be able to confirm the legitimacy of the dismissal (cassation ruling of the Judicial Collegium for Civil Cases of the Volgograd Regional Court dated 01.09.11 in case No. 33-11601/11). But this does not mean that the employer does not have the right to establish control over the electronic correspondence of employees at all. In the above judgment, the ECtHR also considered whether the interference with the applicant's rights had been carried out in accordance with the law. In this matter, he concluded that the interference was not in accordance with the law, as there is no evidence of the existence at the time of the events of any provisions in the general law of the country or local regulations of the college, establishing circumstances that gave the employer the right to monitor the use of telephones by employees, email and the internet. At the same time, the question of whether monitoring the use of telephone, e-mail or the Internet in the workplace, under certain circumstances, can be considered necessary in a democratic society to achieve a legitimate goal, the ECtHR left open. Conditions for control over correspondence legally. Thus, from the above decision of the ECtHR No. 62617/00 it follows that the right of the employer to control the correspondence of the employee is not completely excluded. However, this right must be enshrined in a regulatory legal act, or at least in a local regulatory act. In particular, the right of the employer to control the electronic messages of employees that are sent from corporate email addresses can be established in the Internal Labor Regulations of the organization along with the obligation of the employee to use email only for work purposes (part 4 of article 189 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation) . It is also better to indicate the specific purposes for which the employer introduces such control. In addition, one more condition is required. It follows from the reasoning of the ECtHR in judgment no. The ECtHR noted: “The collection and storage without the knowledge of the applicant personal information relating to the use of the telephone, e-mail and the Internet constituted an interference with her right to respect for her private life and correspondence.” That is, the court Special attention to the fact that the complainant was not warned that the employer was collecting data on her e-mails, telephone conversations and Internet use. Taking this into account, we can conclude that in cases where the employee knows that the employer has access to the content of messages sent and received using the work e-mail box and, moreover, has expressed consent to the commission of such actions by the employer, they should not be qualified as a violation the constitutional right of the worker. Therefore, the employee must be at least warned that the employer is viewing his corporate mail. To be more precise, he must be familiarized with the local regulatory act, which establishes the right of the employer to control corporate mail, against signature. This also meets the requirements of Russian labor law: according to article 22 of the Labor Code, the employer is obliged to acquaint employees against signature with the adopted local regulations directly related to their labor activity. Ideally, it is also better to get the written consent of the employee for the employer to control his correspondence from the corporate e-mail address. For example, such a condition may be included directly in the employment contract. Nota bene! If the control of correspondence revealed not the disclosure of a trade secret, but other violations (for example, incorrect communication with a counterparty), then this may become the basis for imposing a disciplinary sanction. A necessary condition for this: the obligation that the employee violated must appear in his labor duties - indicated in job description, in local regulations governing its work, etc. With the repeated nature of violations, dismissal is possible under paragraph 5 of article 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Wording on the right to control corporate e-mail Regulations on the control of the employer over the electronic correspondence of employees can be structurally “scattered” into different sections of the internal labor regulations. For example, they can be formulated as follows:- “Employees acknowledge that personal computers (desktops and laptops), tablet devices allocated to them by the employer for the performance of their work duties, Cell phones, other technical devices with the ability to access the Internet, as well as personal corporate e-mail addresses created by the employer for employees should be used exclusively for receiving and transmitting information of a working nature. The use of these funds for personal purposes is not allowed.
- “The employer has the right to access information about web pages viewed by employees on the Internet, as well as the content of messages (e-mails) sent and received via the corporate e-mail channel. The exercise of such a right is possible in order to control: the validity of the use of the Internet, the compliance of these actions with production needs; for the employee's compliance with the ethical standards adopted in the company when communicating with contractors; due to the absence of confidential information in the sent messages, etc.”
