Nancy Chandler has been employed by the DEG Corporation, an online textbook sales company, as a sales representative for two years. Her sales manager, Clyde Dodd, informed her when she started to work that the company’s established e-mail communication and Internet system is to be used by employees for “business reasons only.” The company’s e-mail system policy states this:

The DEG Corporation’s communication system provides Internet access and e-mail services for the sole purpose to conduct our business and is not to be used for any personal or non-job-related purposes. DEG Corporation has an established policy of monitoring employees’ use of the Internet and e-mail system in communicating with customers for evaluation of employees’ customer relations performance and for identifying training and development needs for sales representatives.

The DEG Corporation also has a nonsolicitation policy as follows:

The DEG Corporation prohibits the solicitation, distribution, and posting of materials on or at company property by any employee or nonemployee without the express permission of management.

The sole exceptions to this policy are charitable and community activities sponsored by the DEG Corporation management.

The management of the company is aware that on occasion, employees send out e-mail messages to other employees announcing party invitations, charitable fundraising events, and Girl Scout cookie sales. Yet no employee has been reprimanded or disciplined for these occasional uses of the company’s e-mail system.

Recently, Nancy has become actively involved with a group of disgruntled employees who have an interest in forming a union and organizing the company’s 30 sales representatives for collective-bargaining purposes. During her unpaid lunch period, Nancy sent out an e-mail correspondence to the other sales representatives announcing an upcoming union organizing meeting to determine the level of interest in forming and joining a labor union. The company intercepted her e-mail correspondence, and her manager, Clyde Dodd, issued Nancy a written warning informing her that any further violations of the company’s e-mail system and nonsolicitation policies will be considered grounds for termination of her employment.

Questions 1. Should Nancy Chandler have a reasonable expectation of a right to privacy in this case? Explain your answer.
2. If Nancy Chandler has not received any prior, formal disciplinary action, is there just cause for the company to impose a written warning for this offense? Explain the reasoning for your answer to this question.
3. A ssuming that Nancy Chandler and the other sales representatives are at-will employees and she is discharged for this infraction of the company’s rules, what possible recourse might she have to challenge the termination?
4. Considering the facts in this case, should the company review and revise these two policies? Explain what, if any, revisions should be made to the e-mail system and nonsolicitation policies.