Well my sister has a situation at work, I will try to quickly explain: One lady goes on leave and has her e-mail forwarded to someone else. The woman's e-mail (that went on leave) started filling up (I assume its the sent mail). So her supervisor takes it apon himself to log into her machine to delete the e-mail. In so doing, he reads some of her mail and finds some tasteless jokes that were passed around, nothing explicit. However, the company then pulls these 6 women's computer usage (internet and e-mail) and now HR is involved and it seems they are threatening firing them. My sister went to a dating service website once to see our other sister's profile and she has sent some e-mails to the rest of the family. So my question is, did the supervisor have the right to read the e-mail or log into the machine in the first place? And secondly, is there any privacy with computers at work?
In your work contract there's usually a thing pertaining to forfiet of all interlectual property and resources used by you are the companies, thus they have every right, if you are deemed to have known and accepted this...
I belive it is illegal to look through your employees emails as there could be sensitive and private information. They are in the wrong but so is all the jokes. Depends how many jokes tho. If we are talking like 100's of jokes then thats a bit time waisting Im not sure if it illegal to go onto another pesons account, for instance if maintainance was needed.
Yeah that's what I assumed and told her. Its the company's computer and you are not suppose to use it for anything but work. But at 3M where I work, only excessive abuse is considered, but I don't know the insurance company's policy. I guess it just seems odd to me that the supervisor and not an IT person would be the one to clean the e-mail. I mean someone in IT could just delete it from the server.
I agree... It almost seems like her supervisor was trying to single her out for something. It's not illegal at all for a company to look through employee email (or connection logs). In fact, I can see anyones email at anytime I want if needed. The fact is that you are on the company time, using the company computers, servers and internet connection. It happens more often than people think.
The company definitely was within its rights to look at the email, regardless of who actually looked, whether the IT people or the supervisor. I really don't see them taking action on your sister though, because if it really was just as simple as you stated, then there wasn't much on there. They might reprimand her, but probably not anything more. I find it funny that HR's involved, because I work in an HR department, and I (like Dad), have access to everything if necessary. And I have to say that HR is not full of exemplary professionals that don't do anything wrong on their computers! HR will probably say that they can do nothing to your sister because one, there was hardly anything on there, and two, your sister can easily bring up the possiblility that the supervisor did not know what he was doing and could have mixed up files, since he's not a trained IT professional. Our department would have taken a complaint from a manager, placed the employee on administrative leave during the investigation (not a punishment, details are withheld from other employees and the employee is still paid during this time), and taken the PC to another location to be examined by a neutral third party. If your sister's boss was trying to go after her intentionally, I'd say he botched the job.
In a lot of work contracts and such, there is a clause saying that you can't use company resources for personal needs. Like phone calls, emails, paperclips, toilet paper, etc. If you're in the building, you belong to the company My dad asked his boss about it and his boss said that as long as it isn't affecting the company in a large way, that it was fine... Important to ask though, because they can use it as an excuse to catch you later
well.. the computers belongs to the company and absolutely nothing should be used for private stuff... that is stealing bandwith. it's as simple as that. And about logging into employee's mail account's. i don't see the probelm.. if they used it for what it is ment to be used for they have nothing to hide... not as strict in reality though, but still..
Unfortunately it isn't a clear cut case. Firstly, if it's in your contract that a) the company does not allow you to send or forward Email of a personal/sexual/racist/sexist/etc etc.. nature. Then she is already breaking the terms of the contract. Next the question comes in of how she is discovered. Secondly, if they also have a clause stating that they may b) Monitor your Email/Web acces to ensure the systems are not violating the above or being used for illegal purposes etc etc.. Then they have strong case for actually monitoring the Email. Thirdly, a clause which states c) all Email use will be monitored and statistics drawn on excessive use. Alternatively mailboxes may be 'cleaned' to ensure items are deleted or archieved to maintain efficient running of the system. Then they also have the right to be going in there to delete mails which should have been cleared down or archived. Now, if the supervisor has the authority to be accessing her Email legitimately (for example to do mailbox cleaning or monitoring) and finds that she is breaking clause a) then he would probably be doing the right thing to report it. However, if there is no reason for him to be there *and* he doesn't have the authority to do so, then whilst she could still be in the poo for actually breaking the contract, she may have a case for a tribunal in that correct procedures weren't followed to capture those Emails. However, in this case it may be much less hassle to accept the slap on the wrist and forget it as a counter-attack is very messy and if you lose, not pleasant for your career. Unfortunately the main thing to remember is that most companies have a very strict clause in their contract about Email use and monitoring, so someone *really* has to go some under invasion of privacy to win.
Well, at least where I work, authentication is required to get into your account, ergo: you would have to log in as the person in question in order to access the e-mail account unless you are an admin. Even then it requires a bunch of paperwork to acccess the account.
there are two things to consider - 1. the company rules regarding computer usage 2. the law Many companies turn a blind eye to reasonable personal use of their computer systems, only disciplining where they consider abuse. Others - work use only! The law on the other hand overrules any company rule. e.g. My company which is UK based allows reasonable personable use of the computer systems but regards all data stored on it as belonging to the company and hence can search the system as it pleases. In contrast we have branches all over the world. In France for example, the law prevents us from logging into a users pc without their permission, (let alone actually looking at any data). This applies even for neccessary maintanence! My point is you need to research this locally before jumping to conclusions.
Okay I spoke with my sis and she said they got her because her name was on the e-mails that were sent around. Her boss never actually logged into her machine, it was another woman. So I guess he saw the e-mails anyone that was on the list was looked into, ir my sister. Then they found some personal e-mails and some other crap. I can't believe that the company would make such an issue about it, because everyone does it. I know policy is policy, but give me a break. Looking at porn and passing around some stupid jokes to 5 other people isn't hurting anyone. I know she is just pissed because she knows the guys around her spend about 75% of their time on fantasy sports games and passing around the same jokes. All I can say is I am glad I never gave out my work e-mail he he.
By 'a users pc' do you mean someone's home computer connected to a network or a company issued log-in name? If it's the latter, then I'm shocked. What kind of law would stop a company from logging into their own property? After all, just because you're using it for work, doesn't make it yours.
I don't mind the jokes all too much, but porn? Come on, work is not the place for that period. On a brighter note, viewing pr0n in the work place can ruin your life. Just look at this guy. Adults only please... It gets really sad and depressing after the initial scene... Watch at your own risk...
