Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and comput

According to a survey by the Privacy Foundation, more than one-third of U.S. employees are electronically monitored while they are at work. An increasing number of employers are checking their workers' emails and Internet use. It is worth mentioning that this monitoring technology does reduce the personal use of business phones and computers, however employee monitoring reveals other problems at work as well. Every year, thousands of lawsuits are brought by employees because of privacy invasion. I am here and just wanna listen to you guys' opinions about this. Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and computer in the office?

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Yep.

Their employees, their equipment, their resources, their rules.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Employers are paying you to work so they have the right to expect you to keep personal calls and emails to a minimum or done off company time.
But if they are monitoring your phone calls and email on company pc they should tell you that up front and then you know. Of course knowing you are monitored will deter the amount of time spent and the personal content.
Use you cell phone on your break or lunch and not the company phone or computer for personal stuff. Just my opinion.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Adry and kitkat are correct IMO.
My company goes as far as sending all email to a secretary who forwards it. She does not review incoming email, only outgoing. Government contracts make for interesting security measures.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Its a skill I picked up as a software developer.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Exactly. The only time I would have a problem with it is if they didn't say up front they were monitoring. Or if they expected to be able to monitor my personal computer or phone during work hours.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Certainly.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

It's not just phones. My employer has gps in our company vechiles. Tracks speed route and driving trends. Can send email alerts to sups for violations and off-route trips. Also security cameras feed to storage servers for property access and product storage rooms. And intercoms never went obsolete either. If you're gonna work for a modern company best be straight about it.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Totally agree and how it should be Imagine you own a company and find out after the fact that someone has been trading your company secrets to competitors using your own company's email and you never knew because you weren't checking on employee's emails .... ooops :-o

A company I used to work for in (R&D) also insisted all personnel carry RFID tags since 1988 in order for all personnel to have the correct level of access in restricted areas. To get into the facility you had to walk through several different metal detectors and then get checked over by four separate security officers all under full camera surveilance. One generally off limits area you had to change out of all of your street clothes into their classy beige woollen lab wear with no pockets which also came with scratchy paper jocks. You had to leave all your belongings with security (no exceptions) and this was often quite embarrassing for women to be without their handbag or purse :-o
One thing I can say..... they take security very seriously at the government's military explosives manufacturing facility :-D

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Exactly. I'm actually surprised it's as low as one third (if the study is correct in that).

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Its getting harder not to work :-D

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

I do work at military installations. Some you turn in your id and phone to a security screener you don't even see behind a one way window. You get a badge that only opens certain doors and tracks everybody behind any certain perimiter. And cameras still in every nook and cranny. And on the roof top. We install burglar bars and sound attenuators to protect these people from theirselves. Heck, florida has been known to use facial recongition at sporting events to look for individuals. If you think you're only monitored at work think again. Some jobs we have our tools and even screws counted going in and leaving. We live in a monitored world.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

This should work both ways though, why can't we have camera's in the offices of the company CEO's to make sure they are actually working, the workers and shareholders can monitor their work day.:major

Painful chips in-bedded in their skin, not to track anything just for lol's hehe

See how many CEO's vote for that at the next board meeting:-D

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Rikky,
We are not equal, like the military, RHIP!

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Actually, and some of you may think I'm a bit crazy (ok that's a given, I know) but I would even go so far that if I give you access to my secured home network I have the right to monitor you there. Sure don't want to run into trouble with my ISP or gov'ment officials for some kiddy using TOR to download pirated material or even worse stuff.

Jack

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

oh and btw, I've always lived by the mantra that there IS NO PRIVACY on the Internet or on computer networks, only measures to restrict access.

Jack

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

I solve that by giving no one access to my home network.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

I don't even think they should have to tell you they are monitoring the network and phone, as long as that is legal in the area. I have a PC at home, work computers at work...

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Sgt. Tibbs, I'm not worried about them accessing my internal network. More concerned about what they might utilize my bandwith for. As the owner of the account I am legally responsible for it's usage. That is what concerns me.

Jack

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Right... but that's what I meant. My wireless network is locked down and no one but me has access to it. My computers can't talk to each other, but only my computers can gt online.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

That is kinda mean isn't it? Muting your computers... I guess they can email each other to pass the time. :-D

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

roflmao You have NO idea the volume of email I get from my mother...from down the hall. roflmao

I don't trust her enough to network our machines. As it is, I have to clean viruses off her computer at least once a week because she overrides the anti-virus warnings. :banghead

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

I call them happy clickers, cause they will click OK to anything. They just love to hear that mouse click. And don't get me started on the church pron... :-D

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

The problem is that you are not alone.
I was traveling, Wifey had internet issues and called ATT. They replaced my router for free, and left it wide open. I came home to find some Mac addresses on my network that were not mine. I will never know if it was a neighbor or a drive by, and never know what they did. I am guessing they just used the bandwidth as I found nothing wrong on the network.
At work we allow vendors internet access.
Don't ask about the High School where I donate some time....

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

So do you think it is good to do like that? Will you think you are monitored and feel uncomfortable?

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

So don't you afraid of someone is monitoring you or want to get some information from you. It's hard to say. I think you'd better be careful.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Yes, you are right. They pay money fro us, we need to work for the company. Monitoring personal cell phone is not good and I think it violate people's privacy.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Well, actually, I do think it is sort of good from some perspctives when people are idle at work an do something that is unrelated to work.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

So, what kind of monitoring software you use?

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Yeah, they have their rigths because they pay for us. We'd better not to do something that unrelated to work while working.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Will this be found by the boss?

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

If they do like this, that is so terrible.:cry

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Haha, that is such a good idea.:-D

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Since he was talking about my personal home wireless network, I'm gonna go with "nope". No boss here to find it.

I don't use any. I'm the only one who uses my machine, and I am not in management at work. There could be monitoring software on the computers I use at work or there could not be... doesn't actually matter, since the machines I use can't get online.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Why? There computers, their bandwitdth, their people on th clock.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Well, many people think now that companies pay for employees and they have rights to do like that. Many of them use popular monitoring software to monitor employees’ cell phone such as <nope>They use it to know their texts, phone calls and record emails and so on. But in my opinion, I don’t think it is a good idea for people have privacies. Sometimes we just don’t want more people know ourselves things.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Then they need to do it off of work property.


Otherwise, they are not being paid to be idle, usually.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

I don't think anyone here is suggesting they are monitoring "your" personal cell phone that you pay for yourself. If it is a company furnished cell phone they could be, and have the right to, if it is a phone paid for by the company for company use. The company land lines are sometimes monitored, sometimes not, but I would just assume they are and not take personal calls on the company phone. Just as I would not be using company time to text on my personal cell phone.

As for privacy, if you are not doing anything at work that you should not be doing you have nothing to worry about. As for idle time at work, if you value your job look for work related things to fill the time. If there is too much idle time the company might realize they have too many employees and eliminate a few jobs. It's called good work ethic.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Come to think of it, companies should not compete with the NSA for monitoring your cell phone.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Well said, and very true.

When I'm at work, my employer expects me to actually work. My work involves handling information about pre-release products and various unrelated patents, both of which can cause my employer a severe loss of revenue if I leak it. Yes, I expect them to monitor everything I do online, and one of the reasons I do is because they told me they would.

Now, if they wanted to monitor my personal cell phone or online activities, that would be completely unreasonable and met with a very firm, "F*** NO!" What I do outside of work is not their business.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Yes, you are right. But I think not all of people will feel comfortable about this.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Yes, we can't say who is right or who is wrong on this matter.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Well, employers have their reasons to do like that because many employees are doing something that is unrelated to work during the working time. So maybe the boss just want to know what they are doing and do not intend to disturb their privacy.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

How one feels about using another person's resources really is silly.

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

Buy a cheap phone, buy a cheap sim card, watch porn, play games and socialize at work all day.

Majorgeeks, here to help:-D

 

Re: Should companies be allowed to monitor their staff's use of business phone and co

They hiring where you work? :-D:-D