Personal Email prohibited at work
Personal Email prohibited at work
(OP)
I have a gmail account which I use to email everyone- my family, friends, and some colleagues. I recently started working at a new place, which explicitly says "checking personal email accounts (ie. gmail) is prohibited."
I realize it is partly so I don't download viruses. However, I don't feel comfortable using my work email address for personal use (especially if I end up switching jobs in a few years or something). I have been putting in 9-10 hour days and it's kind of a pain to deal with all of my gmail email at once when I get home.
My question is, how is replying to a few personal email during the day any worse then taking a couple personal phone calls? Is this really "enforceable"? I'll probably talk to the head of IT in the next couple of days about it and see what he has to say.
Don't get me wrong, I love the job and if I can't check my email I will deal with it. It's not so important to me that I am going to run off and quit or anything. It's just a bit of an annoyance.
I realize it is partly so I don't download viruses. However, I don't feel comfortable using my work email address for personal use (especially if I end up switching jobs in a few years or something). I have been putting in 9-10 hour days and it's kind of a pain to deal with all of my gmail email at once when I get home.
My question is, how is replying to a few personal email during the day any worse then taking a couple personal phone calls? Is this really "enforceable"? I'll probably talk to the head of IT in the next couple of days about it and see what he has to say.
Don't get me wrong, I love the job and if I can't check my email I will deal with it. It's not so important to me that I am going to run off and quit or anything. It's just a bit of an annoyance.





RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
IT guys don't take on headaches like that voluntarily. If exceptions are allowed at all, you'll probably need to have your supervisor justify your request. Talking to the IT guy will just tell you the allowed forms of action and the likelihood of success.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Until then you can probably set gmail up to forward all your gmail email to your company account, and you may be able to set your reply to address as yuour gmail address (not so sure about that).
Cheers
Greg Locock
Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
I talked to our IT personnel about this same issue. They told me the main "issue" is bandwidth, as most people tend to stay logged into various accounts the entire day. I don't buy it as I know plenty of people streaming internet radios and that has to use more bandwidth that a simple ping to Google's servers, but that is the company line.
"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."
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RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Companies who "overly" restrict internet usage at work are only hurting the company itself.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
We have computers with restricted internet and company email at our cubes. I had to get special permission to access this site from my cube.
At the end of each teams' section is an "engineering stations" that has less restricted internet on it. At those computers, I can tie into my personal email.
All the computers are monitored and there are filters and restrictions on all the computers. The company asks that personal emails and other personal stuff be done on the "engineering station" and be done off the clock.
Since it is only for a short period and the log in is not indefinite, it doesn't affect the bandwidth too much.
It has its plusses and minuses but it seems like a good compromise.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Needless to say, we currently don't have those sorts of restrictions, and I wholeheartedly agree with SenselessSticker.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
That was several years ago, when viruses were less plentiful, less aggressive, and had less commercial backing.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
The side note, with out my personal email i couldnt do some jobs. I have even had CAD drawings sent to me to my personal account because the companys email was crashed when i recived CAD files, also its limited to so 100mb of file space and some jobs had multipale drawings that filled 100mb up fast.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
(1) No personal business on work email account.
(2) No personal business over the internet.
(3) No accessing non-work email accounts.
I'd thought (3) was covered by (2), but a few years ago they issued a separate edict, apparently out of concern that personal email is far more likely to contain viruses than work email (even spam).
It's not bandwidth, it's just policy. (Streaming is banned for bandwidth reasons, plus (2) above.) I can use the phone to check movie times or ask a friend a question but I can't do the same online. The reason we're given for the difference is that there's an auditable trail for anything that's done online, and if someone wants to do an investigation into Waste Of Taxpayer Resources, the non-work stuff we do With Taxpayer Resources online can be tracked; what we do on the phone (or sitting at our desk reading People Magazine) can't.
That said, there are other state agencies in my state that don't care about personal use of work email addresses.
I don't fight it; I just shut up and obey. I violate on occasion in a real emergency (or something I can call work-related, like needing to coordinate my real life with a work trip), but for the most part I am an obedient cog in the IT machine. I fight with them enough about other stupid policy matters.
Hg
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RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
are they paying you to be an engineer and work?
or
are they paying you to do personal emails and the internet?
policy is for supressing crap that come in emails and to attempt to limit the amount of surfing/emailing time which some employees take advantage
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
You have a point, to a point.
There are very few engineering jobs that would never let you make a personal phone call, and email these days has taken the place of a lot of what phones used to be used for.
There are very few engineering jobs that wouldn't let you sit and read a book at your desk during your lunch hour. I can't surf the web from work (even if I forgo porn) on my lunch hour.
A sensible policy to me would be one that depends on the supervisor having some idea of the work vs. goofing off ratio of the employee, whether that goofing off is electronic or not. A reasonable amount of time spent on non-work stuff shouldn't be any different now in the electronic age than it was before; I could have wasted as much time then doing crossword puzzles at my desk as I can now surfing the web, but I shouldn't be doing either. It's just a little easier to disguise electronic goofing off as work being done--you can't hear them talk, there are no tell-tale pieces of printed matter on the desk, etc.
Hg
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RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Official we have a no personal internet usage allowed during working hours. Lunch doesn’t count. However we recently installed monitoring systems to track everyone’s usage and what they are doing. While we don’t routinely inspect the log reports it is handy when needed. An employee just knowing you have the software stops a lot of traffic. Also our office is setup so that everyone’s PC screen is facing a door or open area. This was not done intentionally but also works wonders.
In reality moderate use of the internet is no worse then the hourly smoke break smokers take or chatting around the snack area. My main goal is to keep production up and employees happy, if this means letting them check their email then so be it. If production slips I can stop the internet at anytime. Happy employees are profitable employees, grumpy employees cost you money.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
As soon as employers realize this, the world will be a better place.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
I doubt many, if any, employers mind their employees using personal email or phone calls for that matter when they are needed, what they do not want is an endless stream of jokes and potentially virus infected attachments or personal messages that are not required during work time.
In the UK at least it is illegal to discriminate against anyone, so you either ban something completely, not at all or have a very complicated set of rules that need carefully monitoring.
We now have more communication power available to us than at any time, but we are not allowed to use it, mobile phones are also banned in many UK work places.
Common sense and reason seem a thing of the past; to me a t least this is the same as me being told when I buy a cup of coffee that it may contain hot fluid. Totally pointless and unnecessary but the only option open to the company.
The world is going mad I tell you.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Always
(only exception is sick, injured, or dead relative)
I have personal rules about phone, email, and internet use while I'm on my own time and not being paid.
Company business of any kind is not allowed at any time, for any reason.
I follow the rules.
Always
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Our handbook has verbage stating no personal phone calls, emails, etc. It also says must be working at 7 and done at 5 and lunch from 1145 to 1245 everyday. The reality is if an employee generally works hard and gets their stuff done but is late once or twice no one cares, nor will anyone care if they check their email.
The restrictive policies are in place to protect the company from abuse. If an employee is always surfing the net, the policy can be listed as cause to can them. If I surf the net to check a fantasy score or buy a gift online, but my performance doesn't change, likely no one will care. But, if they want to fire me because of whatever reason, I've given them an out.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
It's been said that you should act as if you're being spied upon ... meaning: Don't do what you would regret if caught. Simple ...
But I've also heard that some companies will easedrop on your computer usage and go through your emails ... and it's all legal (i.e. company policy, company computers, etc.) ...
But it's against the law for someone other than the intended recipient of a (snail-mail) package/letter/etc. to open it ... meaning: My manager cannot open mail that is addressed to me.
Doesn't this concern people ??? In this age ... aren't emails similar to snail-mail ??? And shouldn't they be considered private ???
Just a thought ...
Cheers ...
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Snail mail only uses what used to be an arm of the Government.
Email, on the other hand, is sent in clear text, with no wrappers, and using company resources. Now, if you encrypt your emails, and the company breaks the encryption to read them, you might have an interesting case to chew on.
TTFN
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RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
I am not a lawyer.
My understanding is that governments have explicitly designed the postal service and telephone as inviolate. Also, the postal service and phone companies are not liable for what you do with their equipment.
I am not aware that email and other stuff stored on third party computers has such protection.
I used to be on a bunch of the old telephone BBSes. When you logged onto these things, you were told that the sysops read all the mail, including the private ones. Personal computers used to host BBSes were seized by the police when the users plotted criminal activiy. The sysops protected themselves.
JHG
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
How many times do you hear the recorded message saying "This phone call may be recorded for training purposes."?
When receiving letters at a company or business address I suspect the only way the letters will be delivered unopened to you is if they are marked "Personal and Confidential."
If you are using a business address to receive mail the company presumably has a duty to its owners to ensure you are not your own mail order business, a drugs ring or anything illegal.
If you want to receive private mail, have it sent to your private address.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
If we had jobs such as for example the cashier at a department store, where our work was limited to when we were at our work station, then I could see where such a rule would be necessary. Who'd want to stand there waiting to be checked out while the cashier checked his/her e mail?
On the other hand, my company requires tons of work related time spent outside of regular business hours and away from the office such as e mails from my laptop at home, phone calls after hours, including time away from home for travel for company business, so I don't mind at all taking a few minutes each day and maybe even a couple of times a day when I am in the office to check personal e mail and even answer some that need immeditate attention.
And, yes, our corporate policy prevents it, and if they ever want to enforce it, then subtech's policy stated above will become my policy. I'll leave the Blackberry and laptop at my desk. They can't have it both ways.
rmw
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
A very quick internet search doesn't get me the cite for what law applies to U.S. mail delivered to a business, and a deeper search would, of course, be a waste of my employer's time and resources, so I'll have to let someone else come up with a cite.
There is NO expectation of privacy on an employer-provided computer account, unless the employer tells you you can use your account for private purposes. (University accounts, at least in practice if not by contract, tend to be for personal use--after all, what else would the students be using them for, and the faculty accounts are often not distinguished from the student accounts. But even then the fine print probably says the account is strictly for academic use, etc.)
Everything I do during work hours or via the work computer, I do with the assumption that someone may read it later.
Hg
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RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
I was not saying that you should keep your nose to the grindstone for the entire day and wear out 27 pencils and some tablets.
Companies put that in the rules to curtail ""excessive"" surfing and personal business.
I've seen guys run a personal side business from their boss's company office.
that's stealing.
a few minutes here or there should not bother anyone.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Sites that *might* be work-related seem to be ok. No one has questioned me for looking at the weather, even though I go to weather.com and not the "approved" NOAA site.
But y'all are right; I think these days they aren't going through the logs with a fine-toothed comb like they used to (if nothing else, with budget cuts who has the manpower?). I suspect they'll just do it if they're fishing for a problem.
I still choose not to push it, because it wasn't that long ago that they were enforcing the policy with sadistic relish. I push my limits enough in other areas.
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
I refuse to use my home time to mull over problems keeping the job from getting finished.
I have learned to refuse offers at companies with this mentality. I prefer to be engaged with my work somewhat creatively and this requires a little flexibility and respect in my work environment. Now concerns about IT security are certainly valid though I suspect mostly it is about managers ego and cracking the whip.
As far as the company reading your e-mails. The language in the US is phrases like. "Reading of an employees personal data available on the company property is allowed as long as it has a legitimate business purpose."
So the IT reading your mails to see how your getting along with your spouse is not allowed.
Reading your mails to see if you are divulging sensitive company info is allowed.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Good luck in your new prison.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
I think so long as you're not expecting the same loyalty in return, everyone will be happy.
Nonetheless, there's a difference between your volunteering uncompensated effort versus the company expecting the same.
TTFN
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RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
What I try to remind myself of is, I am damn busy and every minute I'm on the internet takes away from time to get other stuff done. I don't mind taking a break and using the internet and there are many work related tasks I can use it for as well.
That being said I always feel guilty using it and feel like I'm screwing off. And I should because I am when i use it.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Believe it if you need it
or leave it if you dare
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
but until they read the emails, they won't know what is in them.....
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Never mind the company reading emails:
In the US it's a fair bet Homeland Security will have no problems reading them and this is probably true of most other countries these days. Of course, they'll have programs looking for key words phrases etc. and one wonders what sort of deals China and the like have with Google, MSN etc.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
I'm just bothered that my employer can (when ever they want to) review any and all emails that I have written. I feel (and I don't think that I am in the minority) that it is an invasion of privacy.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Unless said email is written on your personal time, on your personal computer, there is a logical case to be made that the email is the property of your employer. While many employers don't mind some personal stuff, you have to keep in mind that your employer generally isn't paying you to do your Christmas shopping, and keep in touch with Aunt Millie.
Government employees in Canada have been reminded, in the past, that all email sent/received at work is subject to the Access to Information Act, and backup copies are kept for this purpose.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Therefore it does not seem unreasonable that the company should have the right to check exactly what was being written, by one of its agents, using its facilities.
Cheers
Greg Locock
Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Believe it if you need it
or leave it if you dare
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
I was going to bring that up as well. We have the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the States. That means yet another level of no expectation of privacy on work email. It also means I really ought to be deleting email on the document management schedule, but that archive is just so darn useful...
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
I've done it a couple of times just to see what might happen.
Nothing ever happened.
But if they liked me less it very well could have.
jmw
You are right they won't know the content until they read them but the wording is suppose to give some minimal protection to employees private lives.
For instance in front of a jury.
We read all of Bobs e-mails just for kicks. ( Bob wins lawsuit)
We read all of Bobs e-mails because he has been sending mails to our competitors ( Bob looses and is fired )
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
A happy employee is a productive employee... and if checking email or news a couple of times a day makes an employee happy, then what's the bid deal?
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
TTFN
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RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
- Steve
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
TTFN
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
"WTF is this? re-do your time sheet in 0.5 hr increments, i dont want to deal with this sh!!!T"
Now I dont fill out time sheets
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
What are lawyers doing in this forum?
Oh, silly me, they must have reviewed the time sheets format.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
When I worked for a direct military contractor, we had to account for our time in that manner. It was usually rounded to the nearest .5 hours, because as Gymmeh infers, it is a royal PITA. It would get to the point where you had to charge overhead just for filling out your timesheet.
Luckily, I have since worked for several military sub-contractors, and time reporting is much more reasonable.
Believe it if you need it or leave it if you dare. - Robert Hunter
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."
Have you read FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
My current company now requires timecards to be submitted by 9am Mondays.
TTFN
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
I wish we had a prohibitive policy at work and then maybe I'd quit getting chain letters about having bad luck for 10 years if I don't pass it along to 10 people.
Rules have to be put in place because "common sense ain't."
Brian
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
I don't feel comfortable knowing that google keeps everything you send or receive in perpetuity.
Believe it if you need it or leave it if you dare. - Robert Hunter
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Like I said they didn't take it as seriously in the UK but it still didn't seem right.
I rarely used .1, I'd usually use .25 and round up or down as I deemed fit.
When I managed my own projects I'll let you guess which way I normally rounded!
KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
We had your standard filters, firewall, etc. The fun thing would be our IT department would record EVERYTHING you would see on the web along with how much time you spent surfing. At the beginning of each week, they would post the rankings of ALL the employees (yes including the bosses) web surfing times along with a list of every website they visited. Definitely left everything in the wide open.
I accidentally left a baseball game website on one evening and got moved to the top of the list. My boss found out and was understandable about it.
Regarding the whole internet policy, it's kind of a two-sided coin. My boss once snuck up behind me one day to see what I was working on. I had an IE window open and like that I got a whole "You have work to get done. You shouldn't be surfing." Later that day, I handed him a copy of a EU patent that was very similar to a project he had me working on. He asked where I found the patent and all I could say was "surfing".
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."
Have you read FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
Not sure if anyone will wear that one, but as a counter offer to "time wasting" it should be good.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
it's a fact that you don't get many responses during the weekend.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
V
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
I have found a many good gems here. or information that got me headed in the right direction.
RE: Personal Email prohibited at work
My take is business only on email and do your best for phones. Companies are too damn politically correct and perception is reality (I hate that). You need to maintain traceless squeaky cleanliness.
The computer and all peripherals belong to the company and any press of the keyboard is potentially recorded and could be put in your face. If you want anything on your personal email to become permanent record within your company, go ahead. Even if the policy is not there, it is not a good idea due to the above fact. It is scary how far this could go. Keystroke recorders etc. If they really want to find out more, you can easily give them a gateway to find anything they want to about you. I believe it is best to keep my personal life separate from my job even though I don't have much to hide.
Otherwise keep your laptop available in your car - there's a wifi somewhere nearby during your lunchbreak. Many people work out of a mobile office. Do your personal or very personal duties in it or do them at home.