Do the neighbors have to know our business?

When I was a kid, we had these neighbors – we’ll call them the Jeffersons – who had a tendency to get into loud arguments. Many of the arguments took place on Saturday mornings in the spring and early summer, when people weren’t quite used to the fact that the windows were now open all the time.

It could be quite entertaining – almost as good as your average Saturday morning cartoon, and sometimes better. They’d be yelling and screaming at each other over some trivial thing or another until finally someone – usually Mrs. Jefferson – would realize what was happening and would shout, “Keep your voice down! Do the neighbors have to know our business?” Then the voices would get a lot more muffled, and we kids would have to find some other way to amuse ourselves, safe in the knowledge that the show would be on again next week.

I’m not sure what made me think of the Jeffersons today. Maybe it was the sweet scent of spring coming in through a window that hasn't been opened in a long time. But thinking about Mrs. Jefferson’s admonition to keep their voices down does remind me of one of the many ways an Internet fax service like MyFax is better than a fax machine.

When you have your latest test results with the doctor’s handwritten notes, or your application for a loan, faxed to a machine in your place of business, that information can wind up sitting in a public area until you pick it up or someone delivers it to you. After all, most fax machines sit where anyone can see what’s on them. Is that really where you want that confidential information to be?

With MyFax, received documents go directly to an individual email account, not a fax machine in a public area. It allows confidential information to remain confidential, helping you keep your business away from the prying eyes of others. Keep in mind that it’s hard to resist learning juicy little tidbits about your co-workers – and even harder to resist sharing what you’ve learned with others. MyFax helps your co-workers avoid both temptations while helping you maintain your privacy.

You may not be able to keep from being the fodder of office gossip forever, but you don’t have to help it along either. Remember the words of Mrs. Jefferson – your co-workers don’t have to know your business. MyFax will help you keep their noses out of it.