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You probably don't think twice about sending personal messages through your work e-mail. But sending e-mails about a seemingly innocuous hobby cost one financial advisor his job when his employer tapped into his work account and read his messages.
Most employers will tolerate occasional use of email for personal reasons just as they tolerate occasional use of workplace phones for personal reasons (and that was much more common before the advent of cell phones). However, they do have the right to monitor the content. In this case, if I'm not mistaken the reason for the dismissal was violation of workplace gambling rules more so than use of email for non-work reasons. Many employers have zero tolerance for gambling, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them cracking down on this as an excuse to streamline their workforce. Maybe a heads-up before March Madness begins.
If companies start firing all workers for playing fantasy football, the unemployment rate would jump to 40%. It's a slippery slope.
^ this We would all be fired.
Most places I have worked are at-will employers so they don't need a reason to fire me.
And although they don't, they can fire me for sending personal emails regardless of the at-will status. In addition to being at-will, all of my employers have a no-personal email usage clause written somewhere. And we get emails about it once in a while. They do not enforce it, to my knowledge, unless that email contains something pertaining to race, religion, harrasment etc. And even then I have only heard of one employee here getting fired for sending a personal email.
But then again, I always here about that one person. I am thinking it is an urban, or office, lengend that employers make up
The only personal knowledge I have about an employee being fired over a personal email wasn't so much about the email, which probably would never have been discovered, but the stupidity of the person who received it. Evidently, the boyfriend of a female employee sent some explicit photos of himself to her work email. When she opened the attachment, she not only didn't delete it immediately, but she printed them out. Even worse, she used a shared printer, and didn't go to collect them right away, so someone else saw them. Really dumb . True story!
Most companies state that they have full rights to any electronic communication done on company equipment.
My sister used her work email *a lot* when she first got savvy to computers at all- didn't have one at home. Used the internet on company time to shop, etc. Her email signature had her name, title, boss name ("assistant to") and other company stuff. She was dumb enough to send around political petititions, stupid jokes, etc., with this info at the bottom. I told her she should stop. She didn't, and didn't get fired (laid off later) but the company would have every right to stop her.
The only personal knowledge I have about an employee being fired over a personal email wasn't so much about the email, which probably would never have been discovered, but the stupidity of the person who received it. Evidently, the boyfriend of a female employee sent some explicit photos of himself to her work email. When she opened the attachment, she not only didn't delete it immediately, but she printed them out. Even worse, she used a shared printer, and didn't go to collect them right away, so someone else saw them. Really dumb . True story!
Unbelievable What was she sniffing the photocopier's toner
Out of respect for my employer, the only time that I would engage in personal emails or read unrelated work topics online was when I had nothing to do (rare) or as a break.
Ohhh, I didn't count that 15 minutes when I first arrive at work and catch up on the news online while drinking my cup of coffee. My supervisor didn't have a problem with it because he does the same thing
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We would all be fired.
. True story!
What was she sniffing the photocopier's toner
