Company Policies


Your company has the right to monitor everything you do on a computer at work. If an employee uses their company's e-mail, even for personal correspondence, the company is perfectly within their rights to read that e-mail. As an employee, I probably wouldn't want my company to read my e-mail, but I do respect that they own the system and may feel it necessary to monitor any communications over their systems. They may need to check for employees who are harassing coworkers or dealing with customers inappropriately. If a company feels the need to monitor its systems, regardless of the reason, as an employee I have no right to tell them to stop just because I don't like it.

The relationship between an employer and employee is no different from any other relationship. Employment is at will, which means an employee can quit at any time. Employee privacy tends to be a more sensitive topic because people are dependent on their jobs, which puts employers in a strong position when dealing with their employees. Quitting your job is a big deal, much bigger than changing where you buy groceries or furniture. However, that doesn't mean employees have the right to prevent their companies from monitoring their own systems.

Disclosure is key. Employees should find out whether their company has a privacy policy, and if so, what it says. Companies may be able to monitor you, but they should also be willing to disclose their practices. If you ask, they can't lie to you. If they won't tell you what they do, then you should probably assume the worst. As an employee, you should know whether your company monitors or records everything from phone calls to your Internet use. Most employers are very reasonable in their practices and will probably be happy to tell you exactly what they do and why. There's no reason for any company to keep monitoring practices secret.

As an employer, my company has no desire to monitor our employees' use of e-mail or the Internet. Some employers monitor how much time someone spends on certain Web sites, such as eBay or Yahoo, so they can try to judge employee productivity. An employee who spends two hours a day on eBay is probably not doing the best job in the world, but that's a silly way to monitor productivity. If a company's managers can't judge their employee's productivity without playing Big Brother, then the company has much larger problems. It's important, though, to draw a clear distinction between silly and wrong. I may feel that monitoring Web or e-mail activity is a silly way to manage productivity, but that doesn't mean it's wrong.

Employee privacy is still a delicate issue. As an employee, it's scary to think your employer might be monitoring your phone conversations, Web usage, or e-mail correspondence. But you do have other options besides quitting. If you're concerned that your employer is listening to your phone conversations, use a cellular phone. If you really need to send personal e-mail while at work, get a Blackberry or other wireless e-mail device the company doesn't control. If you really need to browse the Internet at work, don't browse inappropriate Web sites. If you really need to spend two hours a day on eBay while at work, you might want to consider getting a new job.




The CTO Handbook. The Indispensable Technology Leadership Resource for Chief Technology Officers
The CTO Handbook/Job Manual: A Wealth of Reference Material and Thought Leadership on What Every Manager Needs to Know to Lead Their Technology Team
ISBN: 1587623676
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 213

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