MR

I'm starting a new job in a couple of weeks after working at home for myself for the last 3 years. I will be working for a large company, and I got all of my paperwork in the mail today. One item that was included was the company's Internet/email/IM policy. It basically states that all activity can be monitored by IT and by supervisors. There should be no assumption of privacy. I take this as "don't do anything not work-related on your work computer." I will be in a cube, so I wouldn't want to be on sites for personal enjoyment anyways while at work. I'm just curious if other companies have strict rules about this or if you're allowed to email/IM/surf the net as you wish as long as you get your work done.

Larger companies are bad for this... well, and any type of corporate setting. My Dad is a high level exec at his company and he doesn't even have access to any websites but Google and the Weather Channel. I work for a very small company (4 in the office itself, 3-10 in the assembly room) and though I know at any moment my boss can hit a button and see my screen, he's a cool dude and just does it to fuck with me. So it really depends. I feel for you though, until you get the hang of what you can get away with you're going to be on pins and needles if you go online.

Most companies frown about using the net for personal use at the jobs for various reasons; sucking up bandwidth (especially streaming youtube videos) viruses, automatic online updates that make you system incompatible with older company software just to name a few. Your email is the companies business while using their computer. Most supervisers have all their juniors email boxes on their computer so they can monitor all your correspondence ( your sent, received, and deleted mail). I have to regulary check peoples email at work when some one says they didn't get something so I can verify it. I have permissions so I can access from my desk since some of our offices are offsite, but it does feel like prying sometimes. Bottom line, new job, if the policy says don't surf, then don't do it, and don't email anything you wouldn't want to say out loud to your boss.

Everything can be tracked very easily. If that's their policy I wouldn't chance it. Should something else go wrong, it can be used against you even if it has nothing to do with anything.

However, I will say this site is much tamer now that when I first started lurking (from work). I was constantly clearing history, caches, etc so nothing was on the machine. And I know on some IT log the url address was still listed.

We have personal pc's in our lounges and can use them on breaks/lunches.

jrnychick wrote:I'm starting a new job in a couple of weeks after working at home for myself for the last 3 years. I will be working for a large company, and I got all of my paperwork in the mail today. One item that was included was the company's Internet/email/IM policy. It basically states that all activity can be monitored by IT and by supervisors. There should be no assumption of privacy. I take this as "don't do anything not work-related on your work computer." I will be in a cube, so I wouldn't want to be on sites for personal enjoyment anyways while at work. I'm just curious if other companies have strict rules about this or if you're allowed to email/IM/surf the net as you wish as long as you get your work done.

I waiting for the day, they march in my office and fire me because of this f'n board. My work has suffered, admittedly.

Tito wrote:

jrnychick wrote:I'm starting a new job in a couple of weeks after working at home for myself for the last 3 years. I will be working for a large company, and I got all of my paperwork in the mail today. One item that was included was the company's Internet/email/IM policy. It basically states that all activity can be monitored by IT and by supervisors. There should be no assumption of privacy. I take this as "don't do anything not work-related on your work computer." I will be in a cube, so I wouldn't want to be on sites for personal enjoyment anyways while at work. I'm just curious if other companies have strict rules about this or if you're allowed to email/IM/surf the net as you wish as long as you get your work done.

I waiting for the day, they march in my office and fire me because of this f'n board. My work has suffered, admittedly.

You act as though you're smoking crack at your desk everyday Funny!

Tito wrote:

jrnychick wrote:I'm starting a new job in a couple of weeks after working at home for myself for the last 3 years. I will be working for a large company, and I got all of my paperwork in the mail today. One item that was included was the company's Internet/email/IM policy. It basically states that all activity can be monitored by IT and by supervisors. There should be no assumption of privacy. I take this as "don't do anything not work-related on your work computer." I will be in a cube, so I wouldn't want to be on sites for personal enjoyment anyways while at work. I'm just curious if other companies have strict rules about this or if you're allowed to email/IM/surf the net as you wish as long as you get your work done.

I waiting for the day, they march in my office and fire me because of this f'n board. My work has suffered, admittedly.

Bro, at least we'll walk out with more than we walked in with!!!

Most companies have some kind of policy like that. However, most only enforce it if it's having a negative effect on your work. I am the network administrator at my office, so I can control the internet access and, though employees aren't supposed to access the internet for personal reasons during work hours, I don't enforce it because it hasn't been an issue. I get my work done as does everyone else, so it's not an issue.

StoneCold wrote:Everything can be tracked very easily. If that's their policy I wouldn't chance it. Should something else go wrong, it can be used against you even if it has nothing to do with anything.

However, I will say this site is much tamer now that when I first started lurking (from work). I was constantly clearing history, caches, etc so nothing was on the machine. And I know on some IT log the url address was still listed.

Our clear browser history buttons were disabled at work. I know how to enable it again, but it's not worth the risk. I'm sure they can track our Internet usage by other means anyway. No personal use at all at my job.

I work for the feds and I am IT so I know how to look for it. even if you clear your cache and history etc it is very easily attainable to see every site you have been on . I peruse often during the day when i am at my desk but have never been told to stop visiting non work related sites. THe people who monitor this have much bigger issues then little ole me. I know for a fact i have bisted 2 people for perusing porn ( even though it is filtered out and we cant get to any streaming sites you tube myspace etc but there are ways to look at it ( msn groups is one way one of the people i busted was the way he was looking at it and he was a supervisor of the pharmacy and was making boo cu mula ).

Even those at work that don't think they're being "tracked" are. If you're on the internet on someone else's dollar, they're tracking you.

It probably depends on your supervisor how strict they'll be. They monitor ours. I don't go here or to facebook, for example, but I'm comfortable reading the news and sites like Politico.

I know at my company, some supervisors pour over every Web access. In my department my boss could care less. I'm sure I could "get away" with coming here but there's no reason to risk it. I do know a few supervisors have caught some numbnuts actually looking for other jobs online on the company computers... lol, not too smart.

Just be careful at first and see what other people do and say about it. Then you can gauge.

Tito wrote:

jrnychick wrote:I'm starting a new job in a couple of weeks after working at home for myself for the last 3 years. I will be working for a large company, and I got all of my paperwork in the mail today. One item that was included was the company's Internet/email/IM policy. It basically states that all activity can be monitored by IT and by supervisors. There should be no assumption of privacy. I take this as "don't do anything not work-related on your work computer." I will be in a cube, so I wouldn't want to be on sites for personal enjoyment anyways while at work. I'm just curious if other companies have strict rules about this or if you're allowed to email/IM/surf the net as you wish as long as you get your work done.

I waiting for the day, they march in my office and fire me because of this f'n board. My work has suffered, admittedly.

You want a job where you can pretty much surf the web all day and make good money posting on here ? Get in to I.T. then you have the keys. I have a very relaxed policy at my work and I only block porn and myspace/facebook because they are havens for viruses. I give everyone enough rope to hang themselves and people can browse and take small breaks as long as they dont abuse it. Their department heads know if they are slacking off. I never was a "network nazi" as some people that I have worked with in the past are... It does cause me more work in the long run because people might go to a site that has been hijacked and get a virus but thats the rub to having an open policy..

conversationpc wrote:Most companies have some kind of policy like that. However, most only enforce it if it's having a negative effect on your work. I am the network administrator at my office, so I can control the internet access and, though employees aren't supposed to access the internet for personal reasons during work hours, I don't enforce it because it hasn't been an issue. I get my work done as does everyone else, so it's not an issue.

I'm f-cked!

Thanks for all of the replies! I have no intention of testing the waters at my new job, and I understand why the policy is in place. I really don't expect to have the time anyways! I was just curious about what other companies allow. It's interesting to get the IT perspective on this as well! A few years ago, I was working for a company who let me work from home 2 days a week. I was checking my work webmail on my home pc, and one attachment (from a client) had a virus. Because we had Macs at work, none of the work computers had a problem. The virus crashed my home PC. Luckily our IT guy was able to find a fix for me and walk me through it! Then he suggested I buy a Mac.

Macs are the best EVER. It's on my list of major purchases for the next few years... somewhere after car, Vuitton bag, and Jimmy Choos... somewhere before condo in the city. I heart all things Apple. Especially my new 80 gig iPod.

My company has the same warnings. There are a lot of blocked sites like porn, MySpace and YouTube, others have a 30 minute quota time for shopping sites. For a while it was worse. I have been "counselled" on internet usage but it was because I was neglecting my work. Now I get left alone but I often wonder...

I work in an ER, so sometimes when there are no patients we can search the web. I don't do anything on the web that would be embarassing. MR is not blocked at work, but you never know whatcha gonna get in any give post so I refrain from here at work! LOL!

They block You Tube and some other sites, but for the most part we can look where we want.