Workplace privacy?

[Dusty]

Sounds like the boss is checking out someone else's drawers also. Sure hope that the business doesn't go down when the "ex" wife takes him for the ride of his life.

 

[rox]

Well there is kind of a reason we think he's been doing this. A couple of months ago the boss (owner) took a trip and got involved with a woman. He is married and has two children ages 1 and 3. We found out about the affair when a letter he sent was returned to the office with insufficient funds for postage. The book keeper opened it by mistake thinking it was an invoice being returned. Anyway, no one at the office said anything but eventually he started taking more trips and his wife found out. The wife, who is a really decent person wanted to work things out, but apparently he does not. In the intervening period she has been in contact with most of us "employees" trying to find out where he is and what he is up to. One time she tracked him down on one of these "business trips", expensing all of the cost back to the company. She wrote to a couple of us telling us how hypocritical he is and what a shmuck he is. I think we all pretty much tried to stay out of this personal problem, but I think she made a big thing out of telling him that she was sending us these letters. One of my colleagues thinks that these letters are what he is looking for. Personally, I think he's a petty little guy who is looking for any negative material to hold over us (his employees) and make him feel like his actions are somehow justifiable.

Ohhhkaaaay then that explains it. I guess in this case I wouldn't be upset. My instincts are the the boss is looking or the wife's letters, it is just not like he is being generally nosey. In that cas I wouldn't mind. I never have anything in my desk that isn't company business and he has a 'reason" for his actions.

I don't think the wife is any better, involving the staff in their pesonal life. These do not appear to be very mature individuals. One thing I hate is gossip, I rarely do it. The only time I really would gossip at work is if was related to a project, if somebody is quitting how does that affect my project, that type of gossip. I am really not interested in getting involved in peopel's personal life, or knwoing thier sorid details. If I got a letter from the wife, I would propably send it back, "Return to Sender".

 

[deere755]

My wife typed and printed out a resume and a cover letter for me at work when our printer was down. In the cover letter it said enclosed is my resume. This set off some sort of alarm if you will on her bosses computer and in a matter of minutes she was called to his office. After explaining to him what was going on and showing him the letter and resume, he was ok with it. I guess certain words like resume trip something in their net work to let the boss know what is going on. I think that is fair since it is his equipment and his time.

 

[gordon21]

True story.

One of my employees about 3 years ago was doing an informal interview for a job through a 3rd party. He had called me on his cell right before the interview. Somehow during the interview, he must have bumped the redial button on his cell phone. My cell phone rang and I answered it. No one spoke, but I started hearing the entire conversation he was having with the other person. I listened for about 10 minutes and then hung up. He never knew about it as far as I know. When I got the call for a reference, I gave him a good one and sent him on his way.

There is no such thing as privacy in the workplace. Anyone who thinks so is either a fool or naive.

Have you ever seen those directional antennae dishes about 10-14" in size that can pick up conversations from 100' away??? Do you really think all of them are used for deer hunting????

My guess is that loss prevention depts in big companies buy more than all the hunters ever could. Check the back 8 pages of Sports Afield, Popular Electronics, etc to find all kinds of privacy invading stuff for under $300


Have you ever wondered about the little rooms the car salesman puts you in while he goes and talks to the "sales manager" to try to get the deal closed??

 

[Bob_Skurka]

How much can you expect? I work in a small office with 6 other people, recently it has been discovered that our boss has been going through our offices and rummaging around in our desks. What he could find in my pile of garbage to interest him I haven't got a clue! One girl however had filled out a job application for another company and this is what got back to us.

My question is; should there be a reasonable expectation of some personal space in the office or is everything brought into and done at the office available to management?

By the way, yes he also goes through our e-mail and monitors our web usage and I know there is nothing unusual about that. Hope he likes TBN as much as I do!

The courts have ruled on this many times and it really boils down to a few factors. But if the work rules are reasonably specific, then it is possible for the employee to have virtually no rights to privacy. At our company (which is an E.S.O.P. corporation) the work rules are very specific about who owns the computers and desks, what electronic communication is acceptable and what the employee can use the phones and computers for and therefore, what they cannot use them for.

In my eyes, as well as in the eyes of the courts, when the rules are spelled out then the answer to your quesiton is clear. Employees may have very limited expectations of privacy.

 

[California]

In my eyes, as well as in the eyes of the courts, when the rules are spelled out then the answer to your question is clear. Employees may have very limited expectations of privacy.

I'm not sure the bosses can expect much privacy either.

Back around the time of Dos2.1, someone brought me a laptop to fix. It had been used by the big boss, then handed off to this guy when it was obsolete. It wouldn't print.

He watched as I discovered a file called 'prn' that was a letter to the editor from the president of the local chapter of NORML, the Legalize Marijuana lobbyist group. Yep, apparently she had loaned the laptop to her husband and he somehow printed to 'prn', a file, rather than to prn the generic printer. He must have been stoned.

The guy in possession of the laptop insisted I rename the file and leave it on the machine. I've occasionally wondered how much mileage he got out of that.