"I believe all conversations should be treated equally, be they conversations in the parking lot or email. NOBODY who was not an addressee should be allowed to REQUIRE they be made public unless they were OFFICIAL company notification to employees."
I strongly disagree. Everything not brought into the building by employees belongs to the company. The servers that mail sits on are the company's. The wire that it travels through is the company's. The people who built and maintain the servers work for the company. All software is owned by and licensed to the company. When you clock in, you are on company time.
I could go on and on. Don't ever say anything in a company email you wouldn't say publicly.
>>I could go on and on. Don't ever say anything in a company email you wouldn't say publicly.<<
And boy, do I agree with that one.
But to the rest of your post, you and I are taking two principles and giving them different priority. For example, what I say at the water cooler (even on company time) is not company property, but what I say in writing on paper is. However, I have a perfect right to destroy that paper and I believe companies have a perfect right to destroy all non-essential emails (that have been deleted by the senders and receivers) and actually think they have an obligation to do so.