Would it make a difference if congress gave you an extra $925 plus 50 working hours per employee per year? 

If you’ve been to Las Vegas, perhaps you’ve seen the hit musical comedy Spamalot. This successful show has become rather viral. A Broadway production is touring the country. A London production and an Australian production are operating, and Germany is slated to have the first translated production. Italy, Israel, the Netherlands, Japan, and Poland also looking at bringing the show to their stages.

What’s the workplace connection?

Like I said, it’s viral – just like much of the spam we receive via email.  But that’s where the parallel stops.  We enjoy Spamalot.  We suffer angst when virus-laden spam sneaks through and corrupts our hard drive. 

The Law Needs to Be Changed

I rarely advocate political actions on this blog, but I think our Senators (contact info) and Congressmen (contact info) need to be reminded – on a regular basis – of how much damage spam causes. 

Spammers waited on the edge of their computer chairs while Congress debated the CAN-SPAM Act back in 2003.  They cheered when the bill contained an “opt-out” requirement instead of an “opt-in” requirement.

The few extra rules presented in the SAFE WEB Act (2006) won’t help.  Spam still costs us millions of hours in productivity and billions of dollars.

What SPAM Costs You

A “cost of spam” calculator is available at cmsconnect.com. Here in Boise, Idaho the per-employee cost of dealing with spam is roughly $925 per year, with more than fifty hours of lost productivity.

Multiply that time the number of employees with email at your place of business, and ask yourself if you can afford to throw that kind of money away.

In reality, spam shifts the cost of advertising from the seller to buyer. Spamalot I can laugh at.  A lot of spam, I can’t. It’s way too expensive. 

Why not drop your federal representatives a line  and ask that they look again at the burden spam places on our economy. Request they change email advertising to opt-in only.  Other ways of fighting spam exist, but congressional action can cut it off at the root.

A Little Motivation to Think About

If you need a little motivation to contact your representative, ask yourself:  What kind of difference would an extra $925 and 50 hours per employee make at your workplace? 

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Filed in Work, Business, Internet, Workplace, Corporate Culture