Conference 7.286::digital

    That's probably true, and makes sense.  On the other hand, I don't
    think they check the contents of envelopes as a matter of policy.
    Sounds like they checked yours because there was an oddly-shaped
    object inside of it.  If you had mailed someone a personal letter,
    for example, I doubt the same thing would have happened.

    The mailroom here says if its not paper or media it gets checked.
    A DEC product t-shirt was mailed to me and was never seen again.
    They tell me policy is to trash anything 'personal'. Sounds unethical
    to me.
    
    BTW, next time I'll expence a $20 drive to pick up a $4 shirt. I
    guess if they want to save pennies on mail I'l help out. 
    
    		Alfred

    About a month ago, I received my "Building the Legend" tradeshow
    T-shirt thru inter-office mail, no fuss, no muss.
    
    Jon

The MR mailroom sent a memo around a couple of years ago telling people
to stop receiving professional journals at work, and threatening to
throw them out.  This was around the same time that Jack Smith sent
around the memo which stated that every employee was responsible for
taking at least two weeks of courses per year to stay technically current.

I never lost any journals in the mail, which is lucky for the mailroom.
				/AHM

    No problem, you can send anything anywhere in the world -
    
    disguised as a VMS 4.4 Documentation set:-))
    
    dcb
    

    An envelope with a couple of floppies in it I got a few weeks ago from
    a third party firm had been opened by the mailroom. I have no idea what
    they expected to see or whether or not they saw it. 
    
    -joet

    The Stow mailroom apparently doesn't check too carefully (if
    at all.)
    
    A few weeks ago, I received something in an interoffice envelope
    that I (in_a_way) wish had been intercepted.  I had posted a 
    question in the Christian notesfile (I'm Jewish) and someone 
    reading that conference saw fit to interoffice-mail me a Holy 
    Bible... It was a bit unnerving on a Monday morning... especially
    when that person didn't have the wherewithal to identify them-
    selves...
    

    There are certainly some reasonable limits. For example, you should
    expect to be able to send objects through inter-office mail overseas.
    This would undoubtedly violate various customs laws.

    Actually, I had heard some time ago of a policy intended to discourage
    personal use of interoffice mail.  Friends of ours moved to Valbonne,
    and, there being no such product apparently available over there,
    asked that we send them certain pieces of plastic kitchen-type stuff
    (OK, it was Tupperware), but not through interoffice mail.  There
    had been a crack down on shipping personal items that way, for obvious
    reasons.  So...we had another friend smuggle it instead.  Sounds
    pretty devious, huh?
    
    Remember, as much as we are accustomed to privacy in our mail,
    interoffice mail is NOT private.  No law protects you from some
    Dudley DoRight rifling your interoffice mail in the name of policy.
    On the other hand, he could be fired if he opens and reads confidential
    company information (such as a salary review, etc), that he had
    no right to see.  It would be nice if this were a clear cut issue,
    but it's not.  Dudley had better watch out too!  (and not just from
    people named Guido, with no neck and no forehead).
    
    tim
    
    

    Somehow this seems to be a problem.
    
    Depending on what is opened, and what is read.
    
    There is some Employee confidential paperwork that is sent thru
    the mail, as well as other confidential material.  I have never
    been notified that inter-office mail is being monitored, and have
    often sent confidential info out this way. (marked as such).
    
    I can't believe that the mail room has been legally given authority
    to open and monitor people's mail, it sounds more like some over
    ambitious mailroom workers or management.
    

    Confidential mail (both Personnel Confidential and Restricted
    Distribution) are supposed to be sent in two envelopes; the outer
    one is to bear no information about the confidentiallity of the
    item; the inner one is to be sealed.  (I think I got this all right;
    I read the policy a couple years ago).
    
    Burns

    Someone thought my note was a little offensive so I did a little
    editing. Since I can't find any Regulations on I guess it up to
    the person. I really wouldn't use INTEROFFICE anyway as it so slow
    and screwed up. I realize we're not in the MAIL business.
    
    
                   <<< HUMAN::ARKD$:[NOTES$LIBRARY]DIGITAL.NOTE;1 >>>
                          -< The DEC way of working >-
================================================================================
Note 199.9           Interoffice mail not for personal use?              9 of 12
TIPPLE::CRAPAROTTA "Uh..Oh I'm in trouble Again"     10 lines  12-OCT-1986 22:07
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    If I caught someone in the Mail Room going thru my mail I'd *&^%(
    *^&/(^# fingers!!! That'd be one way to stop him/her... The mail is
    for me and should not be checked by them, unless they TRULY feel
    it's threating to them. If they want to be there for the GRAND OPENING
    so be it...                                              
    
    Joe 
    
    
    PS: I could always get NUNZIO the (*&^%* to talk to them!!
      :-)

    Once, before I was informed that interoffice mail shouldn't be used
    for such things, I tried to send a friend of mine a book (_In Search
    of Ancient Astronomies_, a hardcover, for completists).
    
    He never got it.
    
    I never got it back.
    
    Over the years, I wonder whatever happened to it.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    

    I've sent books through i/o mail before and got them back without
    problem. I've also sent and received cassette tapes without problem.
    
    On the other hand, a piece of personal mail had been opened by the
    mail room. It was from an overseas DEC site being mailed via postal
    service to my office. The ostensible reason it was opened was that
    my mailstop was not on the envelope and it was opened to see if
    my mailstop was written anywhere inside [this explanation was *written*
    on the missive sent in the envelope, if you can believe it]. I com-
    plained rather vehemently to the person in charge of the mailroom
    (this was at PKO), and she agreed that it was totally out of line
    and would try and track down who did it.
    
    There was some discussion about this a couple of years ago in
    another notesfile. Presumably, the reason that the mailroom checks
    packages was because some people in "high security" sites were
    sending things through i/o mail to friends at "low security" sites,
    who'd smuggle the things out. My impression from that discussion
    was that the mailrooms didn't check *every* package, but only
    spot-checked packages.
    
    --- jerry

    I agree that opening interoffice mail to check for personal usage
    is a sham, but I think the policy is a bit too fuzzy to really prevent
    such activity.  I would not want to be in the mail room where packages
    were being opened!
    
    The 'right to privacy', if it really exists, is in question once
    again.  Physical mail, like electronic mail, is also subject to
    the risks of 'casual export' of confidential materials...accidentally
    or unknowingly shipping proprietary or sensitive materials out of
    a nominally secure environment.  How does a company prevent this,
    and yet maintain the so-called 'right to privacy'?  It's not a simple
    question.  I agree, though, they shouldn't rifle your mail just
    because it rattles when you shake it.
    
    BTW...I used the word 'smuggle' in .10, however in a rhetorical
    sense.  It was mentioned that I should clarify that, lest people
    think any real laws were broken.  They weren't.  I appreciate the
    concern for my legal exposure on that point.
    
    tim
    
    

    It's somewhat ironic that the t-shirt that was approved by a
    VP as a valid business item was 'trashed' (according to 'policy'
    I was told) but interoffice mail yesterday delivered a chain
    letter with no problem. It seems as though if it's paper its ok.
    
    		Alfred

I'm not sure I have the time to fight this battle, but I think someone should
go to the "Corporate Mail Manager" in Virginia Road and get him to *stop* this
practice of throwing things away -- and stop it company-wide!

Alfred has already shown that there are cases where valid business items have
been discarded by an overzealous mailroom employee.

In no case should things be thrown away.  The sender (or his manager), or, if
unknown, the recipient, should be called to explain the item.  If it's personal,
the sender (*not* the recipient) should be given a slight slap on the wrist,
or more, if it's a repeat offense.

As usual, different parts of DEC have different rules:  A few years ago, a
friend of mine in Germany asked me for my mailstop to send me and my wife
Christmas presents.  I insisted that he not use company mail for this, but he
informed me that DEC Germany had authorized the use of their mailroom for
sending (specifically) Christmas presents.

The stuff never arrived, though the Munich mailroom, still insisting that they
had the right to decide that their employees could do this, was able to ascer-
tain that the items had been delivered as far as Northboro.

/john

    
    
    If you know that your mail has to go through the regional mail room
    at Northboro and you have not gotten what you think you should have
    or if some one has not gotten what you sent them, go to NRO4 and
    talk to the mail room supervisor. They can generally take you right
    to a bin that jas your stuff in it and will return it to you with
    a tounge lashing about using the I/O mail for personal goods.
    
    I tried to send a book to Canada and got a note (probably after
    the book had been read) that stuff going out country like that has
    to go through the regular mail because of customs regulations. Enen
    DEC parts have to have a bill of lading and import papers and all
    that. Forms and company corespondence are OK. 
    
    

    Is there anyone out there in or near NRO4 who'd be willing
    to check the status of VAXcluster Console t-shirts that no
    in Salem has received? Send mail or call.
    
    		Alfred

    
    Alfred,
    
    	The mailroom is in NR3 and Sara Cormier is the operations manager,
    234-4533.
    
    GOG
    

    I called NR3. What a difference in policy between there and some other
    unnamed mail rooms.
    
    Here is what I was told.
    
    1. DIGITAL promotional items (like my t-shirt) are assumed to be
       legitimate. They're looking into what could have happened to
       it.
    
    2. Mail judged to be personal use is not trashed. Rather a message
       is sent to the addressee telling them where there item is so
       they can make arrangements to pick it up. All items are kept for
       at least a year.
    
     I did not ask but it looks like other mail rooms may be making
     up their own rules on their own.
    
    		Alfred

       Someone in our office lives in Maynard and has a street address
       that is only one digit off from the Credit Union's address. 
       She regularly gets DCU mail which she forwards to them.  However,
       the Credit Union also regularly gets her mail.  They puzzle over
       it, since no one works there by that name, and eventually forward
       it to her via Interplant mail.
       
       She hasn't been hassled yet by the internal mail system.  It
       presents an interesting problem: the mail accidently enters DEC's
       mail system through misrouting by the post office...

    I recently received a 'flier' from a US company addressed to

    Andy Leslie (UVO-7)
    Digital Equipment
    Maynard
    Mass.
    

    So I'm wondering if I can get my Byte delivered there. It'd be a
    lot cheaper.
    
    Andy

    How about personal UPS deliveries at work?  When I worked in MRO
    I used to have things like mail-ordered camera equipment and stuff
    delivered there, since I take a dim view of having the UPS people
    leave it out on the driveway in the rain (they do not get signatures
    anymore for things most of the time; though that wouldn't really
    help since they stop delivering long before I get home anyhow);
    I really don't know whose, if anyone's, insurance would cover things
    that simply disappear or are runied by the weather.  The delivery
    people there let me know when the first couple of things showed
    up upstairs, and I picked them up.  Then they stopped notifying
    me.  After several UPS traces of "lost" stuff showed that it had
    been delivered upsatirs, I went up there and made noise, and eventually
    located everything.  The delivery people told me in no uncertain
    terms that personal UPS shipments were NOT to go to DEC; they claimed
    that they had to pay a UPS charge for anything delivered there (news
    to me; you certainly don't have to pay one to have your $1500 shipment
    left laying out on your driveway).  I really think that DEC ought
    to allow this sort of thing as a convenience for employees, since
    there isn't much alternative for most of us (especially if you have
    no idea when a back-ordered item will turn up).  What do you think?

The UPS deliveries for Southern NH are from a depot in Manchester. 
Recently they imposed a policy that for deliveries to apartments they 
would make one daytime attempt to deliver. If you aren't in (I never am) 
they ring you in the evening and inform you that you have to drive to 
the Manchester depot to collect the goods within a reasonable time or 
they will return the goods to the sender.

If DEC will not allow me to have goods delivered to the office I have to 
take a couple of hours off work to go and get them from Manchester.

It would seem that allowing what would only be a small number of 
deliveries to the office would be a productivity gain...

/. Ian .\

    Most companies do not let employees use the company as a PO BOX!
    Suppose somebody ran a scam with the company as a drop? 
    I wonder what the cost per letter is via the mailroom anyway?
    
    Sounds like a sensible policy save for the catch-22 that they cannot
    tell if it's personal until after they accept delivery, then it's
    too late to refust to accept it!  [gee, that's probably what happened
    to all my fan mail ... ]
    
    	Rick
    	Merrill