OCCUPATIONAL SPAM

(awk.yoo.PAY.shun.ul spam)

n.

Unwanted or unnecessary messages sent over a corporate e-mail system.

Mr. MacDonald compared the unneeded e-mail to commercial spam, which often comes in the form of solicitations for pornographic Web sites or financial scams. He referred to the internal business e-mail menace as 'occupational spam.' Forwarded jokes and chain letters are the most common problems, he said, as are unnecessary e-mail replies.

—Tim Lemke, "Workers wasting hours on e-mail,"The Washington Times, April 24, 2001

Peek over your cube wall.That mild-mannered person sitting next you might actually be your e-mail nemesis: an insidious spammer who sends out mocking happy faces in response to office correspondence and who always selects "reply to all." That's right, according to an "occupational spam" study released Thursday by IT research firm Gartner, gratuitous interoffice e-mail has become a huge problem.

—Scarlet Pruitt, "Gartner: Beware of business spam,"InfoWorld Daily News, April 19, 2001

The scourge ofoccupational spamalso goes by two other names:office spamandworkplace spam, with the latter being the more popular of the two as well as being the oldest of the three phrases:

—"Growing Numbers Becoming Upset By Bad Taste ofWorkplace Spam,"Chicago Tribune, February 9, 1998

address munging

bacn

barfmail

disk spamming

e-mail bankruptcy

e-mail hygiene

empty spam

ham

mailstrom

meatloaf

spam

spamdexing

spim

street spam

whitelist

Corporate Culture

E-mail

Spam