Personal Email prohibited at work 9

[NS4U]

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.

 

[MikeHalloran]

It's the company's computer; they have the right to dictate exactly how you use it. The restriction was probably adopted in response to an ugly incident... or fear of one.

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

 

[GregLocock]

Same rule here. I don't particularly like it but I entirely see the point. I'm waiting for the next step, banning personal emails from company email accounts.

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 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[MadMango]

Greg is correct in both regards. You can setup a filter in Gmail and have it only forward certain emails to your work address.

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."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[Senselessticker]

Here's my take on the matter...

Companies who "overly" restrict internet usage at work are only hurting the company itself.

 

[SomptingGuy]

Bear in mind that most companies will log all email and internet traffic. In the event of someone wanting you fired, IT will probably be asked to dig up any dirt they can find. As an aside, our email administrator is easily the best person to go to for gossip.

 

[PEDARRIN2]

I like how our company handles it.

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.

 

[livingston]

Our company recently instituted the same rule. The reason...someone downloaded a virus and shut down the system at all plants. It was not a pleasant week for that person. As a matter of fact, I don't think they work here anymore.

 

[FreddyNurk]

As a complete opposite to this story, I recently had the necessity to use my personal email on a worksite for two months, as my IT department couldn't extract the digit in order to arrange for my company email to work whilst out of the office.

Needless to say, we currently don't have those sorts of restrictions, and I wholeheartedly agree with SenselessSticker.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Wide- open access sounded like a good idea, until I got to help suppress a virus infestation. It was kind of interesting to watch it grow and travel, but it had the entire company effectively shut down for most of two days.

That was several years ago, when viruses were less plentiful, less aggressive, and had less commercial backing.




Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[Gymmeh]

My company has a weird filter which blocks alot of stuff and doesnt block some things, but we can check our personal email. My boss see's it as a moral thing, if we are getting our work done we are more then welcome to check our email.

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.

 

[SomptingGuy]

I have some friends who only use my work email, which I can access from home really easily. I haven't asked for a ruling on that one yet from our IT people.

 

[HgTX]

We have several rules:
(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

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[Sideswiper]

I'd think most policies like this are simply ways to get you in trouble if management wants to get you in trouble. Nobody wants to fire a new hire, go ahead and test the water by checking your personal email once or twice a day. If its a real issue, you'll get a warning and you stop while perhaps checking out your other options. Of course, we all have our own risk tolerance...

 

[vesselfab]

one question

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

 

[HgTX]

vesselfab--
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

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[BRGENG]

We have discovered that the internet is a great time waster in our office but at the same time a great tool. We see giant spikes in usage during football season for fantasy football leagues, Christmas time and the March NCAA basketball tournament.

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.

 

[jistre]

Grumpy employees burn the place to the ground and go to Rio.

As soon as employers realize this, the world will be a better place.

 

[ajack1]

Is this not a classic example of the world we live in having gone mad?

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.

 

[subtech]

My employer has rules about phone, email, and internet use while I'm on the clock being paid. Personal business of any kind is not allowed at any time, for any reason. I follow the rules.
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