When e-mail comes back to haunt you

“Employees are often genuinely shocked when a casual e-mail comes back to haunt them, especially as evidence in a lawsuit,” says Andrea Bernard, a partner in employment law and litigation at Warner Norcross & Judd in Grand Rapids, Mich. To avoid problems, it’s helpful for companies to have a written e-mail policy, writes Anne Fisher in her May 8 Ask Annie column. Does your company have a formal, written e-mail policy? How detailed is it? Do you follow it or ignore it? Do you ever see inappropriate e-mails come by your desk?