<p>Well said, starbright.</p>
<p>At my company, about once a week, you will see an icon in the notification area that shows they are remotely ‘monitoring’ your pc. I assume they are going in and downloading everything you have done on the pc since they last time they monitored it. It’s actually a little creepy to see that icon whirling.</p>
<p>Someone told me a week ago that because the internet traffic in our building is so slow they are going to start monitoring people’s activities. They periodically send out system-wide emails asking people not to use the internet for personal use because it slows it down for the people who actually need to use the internet for work-related purposes. I admit I do go on and check the news several times a day but generally only stay on for a few minutes at a time. I use my smart phone for most email and internet related things I need to do during work hours.</p>
<p>I only bother to go over employee’s emails when there is suspicion of wrong doing. It is the most unpleasant part of a manager’s job. </p>
<p>A lot of companies have 1-800 number where any employee could report any suspicious activity anonymously. Once a report is made, security is obligated to investigate, and it often includes reading emails of employee(s) involved. I was once targeted by an employee who had a grudge against me (he was given a bad review). Without my knowledge, I was investigated and my emails were read by quite a few people. I was exongerated at the end, and it was because of my emails. It was a scary experience, and it could happen to anyone in the corporate world now. </p>
<p>Something similar happened to a friend of mine, except her investigation dragged out for months. They read her emails and twisted what was written in the emails, and she had to explain it over and over again, had to bring in other people to back up what she was saying.</p>
<p>I used to work in corporate customer service (engineering) and we were always told to be very careful in what we wrote in emails and other communications with customers. In general, my policy is to use the phone or walk into an office for a chat when there is anything remotely controversial involved. That may be in describing the behavior of another employee or customer, schedules, gray areas, etc. I avoid writing emails that could be misconstrued or that would look bad in public.</p>
<p>I think what ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad is very accurate, from what I’ve observed.</p>
<p>However, a company would stop at nothing to keystroke log, and monitor every single thing YOU do if you give them a reason. </p>
<p>They will put a camera in your ceiling to watch you if they have a good reason. They will record your phone calls on the company phone.</p>
<p>And even if you have done nothing, if someone has filed a complaint (true or false) against you, your email can be reviewed.</p>
<p>Use that great i-phone or droid for all of your personal calls, email or web surfing. Just get into the habit.</p>
<p>It’s interesting, I guess it’s another reason to get a smart phone. My father is a state employee and has stringent guidelines on computer use (although cell phones aren’t taken away). I called him once because I was lost and wanted him to look up a map, and he told me that he couldn’t access any outside websites at all. Then he mentioned that a co-worker (who notoriously does very little and runs a side business) could get her laptop, since she brought her private laptop to work for personal internet.</p>
<p>Agree that it is the unpleasant part of a manager or owners job. I took starbright’s post a little personally and avoided reposting until I cooled down.<br>
At least in my case I was talking about employees who were not getting their work done and their clearly was a productivity issue which impacted our clients due to way too much personal stuff being done at work. This does not pertain to every employee.
I respect the right of every owner or business to make sure that things are being done to service their clients and customers, particularly in this economic climate. In my book if you don’t want to answer to a boss, manager, or owner it’s time to start your own company. You take the risk you can have the freedom and the rewards.</p>