Page 17 - Today’s Business Communication; A How-to Guide for the Modern Professional

6 TODAY’S BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

companies and their employees can find themselves in big trouble because
of emails. Too many of us forget that the things we put in writing have a
way of becoming permanent. To the contrary, great communicators are
thoughtful about those things they choose to put in writing.
Although there are a number of examples of inappropriate or
embarrassing written communications “going viral,” the case of for-
mer CIA Director David Petraeus is particularly chilling. Why? Because
Mr. Petraeus, a former U.S. military general, resigned in disgrace from his
position reportedly because of an inquiry linking him to an extramarital
affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. The investigation was report-
edly launched because social planner Jill Kelley began receiving harassing
emails that were traced to Ms. Broadwell. As part of that investigation,
13
the FBI found another email account that was shared by Mr. Petraeus and
Ms. Broadwell in which they left messages for one another in draft mes-
sages (i.e., without actually sending the messages). As a result of the revealed
affair, Mr. Petraeus’s reputation was destroyed, and his career was over.
14
The Petraeus example is enlightening because it is easy to think about
the workplace bully who sends threatening emails. But, the retired gen-
eral is a bright and accomplished individual. He served in the military
for nearly three decades, reached the highest echelons of the intelligence
community, and holds a PhD degree from Princeton. He used a clever
plan to keep his communications with Ms. Broadwell clandestine. Yet,
despite his best efforts, his written communications, his emails, proved
to be his undoing.

Busy People, Emails, and Communications Overload

Attorney Mary A. Gambardella is an expert on email. In fact, during
a 2013 presentation, she told her audience that email has become her
favorite topic as a litigator, because for better or worse, email has replaced
a lot of human contact, and email often has expensive, negative conse-
quences. As a business communicator, you will need to remember that
your workplace email messages can linger, even after deleted, for many
years.
For example, Ms. Gambardella says she has employed forensic
computer experts who were able to retrieve inappropriate emails that