You might be right but the post was written in a way that implies its simply some asinine policy they think will help productivity. If the law requires the ret

You might be right but the post was written in a way that implies its simply some asinine policy they think will help productivity. If the law requires the retention of all electronic communication, not just email, as others have suggested then IM is subject to those same rules. Furthermore, most IM clients these days keep conversation logs anyway so I'm more apt to believe they thing they're helping productivity. But you could be very right and it is an angle most of the commenters, including myself, have missed.