--- kakki <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > It is kind of frightening, but I think the law > across the U.S. for awhile > now has upheld the employer's right to read and > monitor employee email and > also to fire an employee if they break the rules. ... They warned > everyone several times > that the email could be monitored at anytime before > they started doing it. > They also had employment discrimination (sex, > religious, ethnic) sensitivity > training which was mandatory for all employees to > attend on an annual basis. > Their bottom line policy was that no one should > speak or write about > anything or place any kind of book or photo on their > desk that could be > construed as harrasing or offensive and it was best > not to bring up a > subject at all. Literally, we were told it was a > risk to, for example, ask > someone innocently if they were Irish or Jewish or > discuss religion in front > of them or flatter them on their appearance or talk > about sex. I think it > is sad that we have become such a fascist society in > this respect, but that > has been the trend for awhile now.
We've had this same training at work. It does open some people's minds to the possibility that some of what they might think is OK to joke about can be offensive to others, and it's fine to sensitize people to that - at the very least, they become aware that THE world isn't necessarily THEIR world - not everyone thinks the same way about things. I understand the point about the e-mails. You're not supposed to use "company" time for personal use, which includes personal phones calls and so on. The content is probably less important when you come right down to it, but that's the stuff that can cause great embarassment to your employer for a variety of reasons. Most reasonable employers aren't going to say you can NEVER have personal phone calls and anyone with a brain realizes that no one is "on" all the time as far as work is concerned (or anything else for that matter - people just aren't built that way). We have an agreement that pops up on our desktop once a week when we log on at work reminding us about our policy on use of e-mail and IT. Most people just click to say they agree without reading the thing (what else is new?) When you're first hired, you have to sign a paper version of this thing, and, if I'm not mistaken, they may make us sign one of these hard copies once a year as well. Even though I understand the logic of this, one of the things that bothers me about this is, what if someone, out of sheer maliciousness, sent you something by e-mail, like something really pornographic? You have no control over this and yet you might possibly be blamed for it. Anyone can look up people's e-mail addresses from our website, so the potential for spamming is great (although there are filters of some kind). I get the odd e-mail from HR companies trying to sell me on their temp services. I delete these without reading. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. I like to think that the Powers That Be would check further and come to the conclusion that you hadn't invited the malicious e-mail and that it was sent to you with your solicitation, but I don't trust the Ps that B - most people, no matter how high up the food chain they are, seem to be pretty literal-minded about applying the rules, which is probably why we have them to begin with. If we all had "common" sense and we all respected one another, we wouldn't need rules - right? I have no idea what I'm talking about, so I'm getting out now. ===== Catherine Toronto ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
