A Nationwide joke

There is a story in todays local newspaper the Swindon Advertiser about the headquarters of Nationwide Bank. The headquarters alone employ over 4,000 staff. So it is a big bank, a national bank and it's not one I would ever wish to work for.

The paper says that an e-mail containing an offensive joke was being circulated and that when management found out about it they tracked it back and spoke to all who had received it. The reprimands went as follows:

For receiving the e-mail and forwarding it - a written warning.

For receiving the e-mail and deleting it - a verbal warning.

So obviously even though you cannot control what is sent to your inbox such as e-mails from colleagues and spam advertising the usual miracle creams and potions. You the receiver are to blame. As such you will receive a verbal warning.

Forwarding the e-mail is a choice made and as such is inappropriate so I can understand the written warnings in that case.

Why did the company not have adequate filters in place?
How was the e-mail found? Were the internal e-mails being monitored?
Why were people who opened the e-mail and deleted it (in disgust) reprimanded?

You can be punished by this company for something you have no control over, for receiving a communication you neither asked for nor wanted. It's absolutely ridiculous, nonsensical even and not somewhere I would chose to work. There's more than enough fodder for reprimands in normal day-to-day office life, why add things over which the employees have no control such as receiving e-mails.

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