IM Users: Your Boss Is Watching 

AOL's Stewart, however, saw little potential for conflict.

"People have increasingly accepted the fact that companies do have policies around the use of communications tools," he said.

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Stewart and Radicati agree that employees of companies that monitor instant messaging will probably create separate instant-messaging accounts for personal use. Most office workers already take this kind of approach to e-mail, maintaining a personal ISP or Web-based e-mail account in addition to their work address.

Radicati sees a potential for further conflict, however, if firms begin monitoring messaging on both personal and corporate accounts at work.

A number of firms have decided that the security risks and record-keeping hassles of instant messaging outweigh the benefits.

Computer services giant EDS, for example, decided this summer to ban all use of instant messaging within the company.

Web filtering firm Websense, meanwhile, estimates that more than a third of its customers use its software to restrict employees' access to instant messaging.

For companies that do allow messaging, providers are lining up to sell them services to beef up security.

Of the "big three" free instant-messaging services, which include AIM, Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger, Stewart said AOL is the first to launch a corporate instant-messaging service.

Microsoft, however, has said it plans to roll out a corporate product next year. The company also co-developed a service called Reuters Messaging, launched in October by Reuters, which is geared toward the financial services industry.

Meanwhile, the free instant-messaging services must also compete with business providers like IBM Lotus Sametime, WiredRed and FaceTime Communications, which collaborated with AOL on its gateway service.

With all the services on the market, Osterman believes it's fairly inevitable that employers will eventually monitor instant messaging in much the same way they do e-mail.

And while it's unlikely anyone will actually have the time or inclination to read all the archived messages, those trading office gossip over instant messaging may want to proceed with caution.

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