Personal computing while on the job

[Thomas S. England]

Never having worked in an office enviroment, I get curious about aspects of having the computer there on the job:

Are people generally able to unstall their own programs on to make the computer more of their own (and in many instances, more productive)?

How closely do the bosses monitor what employees during work hours? Do people worry about that?

Are you always part of a larger network, or can you go "offline"?

Is there some sort of protocol about when you can use the computer for personal tasks?

What would be a fireable offense?

I'd just like to hear some descriptions about how these issues work out in real life....

[Paddy]

Thomas, I think it's highly variable - and probably rather dependent on the size of the company. The bigger the company, the more likely there are to be (a)tech support people and (b) lots of rules. I've more experience with computers in an educational environment, but it's not so different from a large corporate environment. Users generally aren't allowed to install their own software (generally prevented from doing so by not having administrator privileges) - and in the case of many of them, for very good reason! I would say that there are probably more people in the world who are likely to install useless things or compromise their systems unknowingly than there are who actually know what they're doing. This is particularly applicable to the PC side of things.

My husband works for a large electronics firm and they cannot access some web sites from work, nor can they get some types of attachments on email. He's never mentioned anyone monitoring them, but they're a bunch of pretty highly-educated engineers and generally pretty serious about their work. That said, there are several of them that have their iTunes libraries on their work computers and make them available for sharing over the office network. So, clearly at his company at least, it's not all work and no play, and it would appear that there is some leeway in what can be installed, as none of them save my husband are actually using Macs, and last time I checked, PCs don't come with iTunes pre-installed!

[dolphin]

I work at Owens Corning Fiberglas. Installing personal software is a definet NO NO! The company closely monitors what goes on on company computers. Paddy said it in her post; most software can only be installed with administrator rights.

THE #1 problem is people who play games on the computers. The company has removed all games that come on the PCs, but some people bring in and install their own games. First offense is a 3 day suspension, then 5, then possible termination.

The #1 fireable offense is downloading porn. YES it happens. I know of 3 people who were fired because of it.

I do access TS at work, but not frequently.

[kelly]

Roy. Did you see Modern Marvels' "Insulation"? Was on tonight.

[pendragon]

AFAIK, the "work" computer and everything in it are "owned" by the company. Ergo, access to all emails, bank accounts, sites visited, whatever the employee does on the company's machine are all the property of the company. In other words, you have no privacy rights as commonly understood.

Where things get a bit murky, is when an employee brings his own computer in to the workplace (if so allowed) and then connects either wired or wifi to the company network. What are the employer's & employee's rights in that case? I dunno.

No doubt the lawyers amongst us will clarify/correct/amplify/modify/adjust the above.

FYI: Pendragon University offers a Law Degree for a nominal enrollment fee (payable to our Cayman Island account). Course credit is given for time spent watching Perry Mason, the O.J. Simpson trial, Law & Order, Judge Judy, 12 Angry Men, To Kill A Mockingbird, etc.

If you order within the next 20 minutes, a free genuine plastic frame is included. Call now, have your credit card handy!

[Gregg]

QUOTE(Thomas S. England @ Apr 11 2007, 07:57 PM) [snapback]124311[/snapback]

How closely do the bosses monitor what employees during work hours? Do people worry about that?

Are you always part of a larger network, or can you go "offline"?

Is there some sort of protocol about when you can use the computer for personal tasks?

Not very. Not really.
You can work on your C drive, but it won't be backed up.
Nope.

In my office, I see people using the internet at all times during the work day. I will take a quick look at my e-mail several times a day, and respond at lunch or at the end of the day. People do have work related uses for the internet, but most of what I see on the screens as I pass by looks unrelated.

[gunug]

Being part of the IT department allows me a lot more freedom which I try very hard not to use too much of!     I have administrator rights to any system I log onto!

[sandyman]

In my last job, for a fairly large company, there was a very strict policy. The desktop was completely locked down. It was impossible to install applications or games as no one had administrator access.

The "RUN" feature on Windows was disabled as was the Windows Explorer (not to be confused with Internet Explorer). "My Computer" was available but only showed the Network shares  which each user had access to.

Email was monitored, mainly by checking for attachment size and type to prevent  sharing of risque/humorous stuff. I know of one guy who was disciplined for sharing a joke cartoon.  Even our manager said that he did not find it offensive but that as sending any stuff like it was prohibited....  

Some mangers were able to use USB devices but the rest of us were unable to do so.  The Floppy Drives (remember them   ) were also disabled.

Although Internet access was allowed it was controlled. They use the MS provided kit to customise Intenet Exploder to remove many of the menu items.  They also run a proxy server of some sort which stops access to certain types of web sites.  Not just the obvious ones like XXX stuff, but also webmail services.  One supervisor/manager did at for a while manage to bypass this and was reported for accessing porn, however, somehow his manager managed to get him off.  No one to this day knows how but that was the only exception I know of.  The guy was however moved to another office.

When I started there things were a lot more lax but over the years they have, as you can see, set up a pretty secure system.  

Some things are still possible by connecting a laptop, for example, to the network. I know of one guy,   ,   ,  who was asked by his manager to access the Security Camera system so that he could look at the archive footage of an accident in the car park. However all the other web browsing limits are still in place.  One department,   , was able to install their own cable modem and router and gain unfettered access that way, however the manager did ask one of his engineers,   , to put some controls in place.

Sandy

[Jack W]

QUOTE(pendragon @ Apr 12 2007, 05:23 AM) [snapback]124345[/snapback]

FYI: Pendragon University offers a Law Degree for a nominal enrollment fee (payable to our Cayman Island account). Course credit is given for time spent watching Perry Mason, the O.J. Simpson trial, Law & Order, Judge Judy, 12 Angry Men, To Kill A Mockingbird, etc.

If you order within the next 20 minutes, a free genuine plastic frame is included. Call now, have your credit card handy!

Hey, don't include "To Kill a Mockingbird" in that list. It's one of my all-time favorite movies!

Harv,

Is Pendragon U a fully accredited University? And is it located in the Cayman Islands? And do you provide all transportation and living expenses while enrolled?

If so, sign me up!      

Altho I'm past the 20 minute sign-up requirement for the free genuine plastic frame!

- Jack

[dolphin]

QUOTE(kelly @ Apr 12 2007, 12:11 AM) [snapback]124324[/snapback]

Roy. Did you see Modern Marvels' "Insulation"? Was on tonight.

No Kelly I did not see it. Interesting I'd imagine.

[Epaminondas]

I have seen surveys indicating that 70% of US companies actively monitor employee telephone conversations and computer usage.  All legal in the US. Workers in the workplace - using company telephones, computers and company networks - in these circumstances have no legal expectation of privacy.

Even a worker's urine is not his own - but must be yielded on threat of firing.  So has our Supreme Court ruled.

This is what American freedom and democracy have become.


Look through the back of various common computer magazines - PC World, PC Computing, whatever - and you will see the ads for software for employer snooping on employees:  "Porn!" "Employee Affairs!" "Company Secrets!" Etc.

Workers I know often seem to think that their "private" web email accounts - accessed through company computers from work - are somehow private.  They are not.  Everything can be monitored once it is accessed through the company network.

People believe such things are private because they want to believe such things are private.  When you try to tell them otherwise, they resist the knowledge - sometimes very strongly. It is interesting to watch.

Office telephone systems are set up that way, as well.  I was in the middle of a conversation with our administrator in his office one day when he glanced at his phone, "paused" our conversation, picked up the handset and just went into listening mode for the next few minutes - obviously snooping on someone's conversation.  

American Corporate Standard Operating Procedure.

I silently excused myself - I had better things to do with my time, thank you.  After that - I would invite him to my office, instead.

And I have always been careful what I said on the office phone. Or in that office, for that matter (people told stories outside of work).


Americans have much fewer privacy rights than Europeans.

Business enforces this because it can.  Government uses the excuses of child porn and terrorism to whip people into anti-privacy hysteria and strip its citizenry of privacy - with the acquiesence of said citizenry. It you disagree - well, there  must be something wrong with you. After all - why would you want to have any privacy at all unless you have something terrible to hide?


Milady took new employment last year.  "Human Resources" runs the place with an iron fist in a proctologist's rubber glove.  Actually only a few rules, most proceeded by the word "No."

Simple concept - computers at work are for work.  Web is to be accessed from work for work purposes. Telephones at work are for work.

She does personal telephone calls from work only during lunch break and only on her own personal non-company cell phone. Telephone to me that she will be running late - only a few second call from her personal cell phone. Email and web browsing only on the home computer after work.  Skype to the folks back home over the weekend.

She sees some employees violating the rules - but why put one's job at risk?  Enforcement of such matters can be very arbitrary.


Privacy is good -

Epaminondas

[krissel]

This brings back memories of when I agreed to having a school computer placed on a small desk in my little 'office' space so the faculty would have use of it when needed. I agreed with the stipulation that I could put some graphics applications on it that I wanted to learn and eventually introduce to the students.

Trouble came one day when I had to zap the PRAM and consequently reset the AppleTalk settings. I could no longer access the server where I had stored some files so I asked to be reconnected. The main IT Nazi apparently got paranoid and sent one of his brownshirts over to install At Ease (Remember that?) so I couldn't do much of anything, or so he thought. I would just boot to a system floppy (yes, that was an old computer), remove the At Ease extension, reboot, do my thing and then reverse the process at the end of the day.

Finally I got tired of that and bought my Wallstreet. Somewhere along the line he realized I wasn't a nube and wasn't going to bring down the school's network so he allowed me to connect it to the T-1 line and use the net for research on artists and download graphics for lesson handouts. I knew that he could monitor every desktop connected to the net through the school's service so I was careful about where I went online and only used it for 'personal' stuff at lunch or after hours. At the time it was very valuable to me for downloading applications as I was still on dialup at home.

Since most of the other staff and administration were pretty clueless it turned out to be a case of who you knew meant what you were permitted to do.

[MamaMoose]

I have worked at 7 different companies over the past 52 years. The first two companies had only main frames and persona; computers had not arrived. On company where I did most of my main frame calculations used the nearby Control Data as a source for massive compute power. I was able, while waiting for output (up to several hours) sit at the monitor and play "Baseball" and "Space Wars" in a time-shared environment with players from the US, England, and France. Nobody minded! In the later years, company became very particular about what you did on the company network. There were overseers in IT who daily and randomly checked what was on your computer and if you had porn, personal work, etc. you were fired! One critical issue was that much of the work we did was classified. Sandyman told like it is!

The last company I worked for had a complete laissez faire attitude about personal use of their computers. They did not care about anything I did- write a book, write love notes to my wife, check-in with out of town family, order personal items from the Internet, etc. There was no dress code and I could even go to work in my pajamas!! Great company to work for - if you fell asleep at your desk nobody said anything!

The name of the company is C-Fourth, my own company of course