If they make that clear in their policy, yes. My last company made it clear that phone calls might be listened in on, so naturally I didn’t make/take any phone calls I didn’t want anyone else to hear. That company had pay phones in the break room of that call center for employees to use for personal calls; where I am now, they have free phones and Internet kiosks there-although even there, they have restrictions on accessing ‘inappropriate’ material. In that regard, the ultimate problem is very simple-if someone is highly offended by something they see on a computer screen as they walk by, they can sue the company for sexual harassment due to a ‘hostile work environment’. Such is life in our litigious society …
Have you ever met the guy with almost the same name?
Nope. I guess he doesn’t work all that far away, but it’s in entirely another division of the company, and nothing’s ever thrown us together (in the nine months I’ve been there).
Why?
Oh, I understand the reasoning, I just wouldn’t want to work anywhere where I wasn’t trusted. Don’t mind me, what do I know? I’m self employeed.
Hmf. Trust? In modern corporate America? It is to laugh.
Back in the day, there was such a thing as trusting in employees and company loyalty. It wasn’t the employees who broke the traditional compact. It was the corps who frittered away any sense of loyalty that the employees ever felt for the company, with downsizing the only goal of which was a kick upward in stock value (as well as huge bonuses for the CEO who initiated the downsize) and the development of employee-as-serf attitudes.
If they feel they can’t trust their employees anymore, they have only themselves to blame.
Well, there’s that, and there’s the fact that a sizeable minority of employees are fucking stupid, and given to spending much of their day emailing round 15-Mb zip files of pornographic photos, or bringing down the LAN by downloading MP3s non-stop, or introducing viruses that destroy the company’s ability to function for a full day (thanks, SQL Slammer).
Companies have suffered major reputational (Claire Swires?) and financial damage in recent years through employee misuse of email and internet access. Doesn’t bother me in the slightest that they choose to monitor things as a result.
dietrologia: doesn’t bother me in the slightest if my calls and post is monitored at work. I have a mobile for personal calls that are too sensitive for using my desk phone – personal calls are allowed at work, within reason, but I see no need to take the mickey – and why would I have any post delivered to my work address that I wouldn’t want my employer to see?