personal emails at work...

[nageov3t]

Why do you use the company's toilet water when you could easily wait until you got home?

if my company didn't allow us to use the bathroom (assuming that's even legal) I'd be sure to go at home rather than taking a shit in the trashcan inside my cubicle.

 

[edro]

Alright...alright.
I'll stop championing this pitiful argument.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

if my company didn't allow us to use the bathroom (assuming that's even legal) I'd be sure to go at home rather than taking a shit in the trashcan inside my cubicle.

It is not legal. There are OSHA regulations which require employers to provide adequate bathroom facilities, and prevent employers from imposing "unreasonable restrictions" on bathroom use.

 

[edro]

It is not legal. There are OSHA regulations which require employers to provide adequate bathroom facilities, and prevent employers from imposing "unreasonable restrictions" on bathroom use.

There should be an OSHA regulation for personal email access...

 

[Kev]

You guys arguing over if you should or shouldn't be able to access personal email etc are being idiots. It just comes down to company policy. What the COMPANY sees fit for their organization. Some places (like my work) simply do not allow access to such things. Cell phones MUST be turned off before entering the premises. No CDROM access. No USB port access etc etc. Yes. FULL LOCK DOWN.

Other places are much more lax (and can afford to be) and thus allow their employees access to such things. They realize that with this access the employees will be happier with their job.

That being said, obviously, since the IT department in the OP has shit on lock-down he should NOT be accessing personal email while at work. So he should either talk to his supervisor or stop trying.

do you work for the CIA or something?

 

[Homerboy]

do you work for the CIA or something?

If I told you, I'd have to kill you :ninja:

 

[BoomerD]

I never did understand why people need to access their personal email from work...or nef on company time. You're there to work...so get off the internet and get to work...dammed slackers!

 

[spidey07]

There should be an OSHA regulation for personal email access...

Damn entitlement mentality is going to ruin us all. This thread is a perfect example.

All of this is done for security and worker productivity. No thumb drives, no writable CDs and every e-mail is scrubbed for keywords incase any company secrets are sent. You're lucky if you can attach a file to e-mail.

 

[CRXican]

Yep, because every worker dedicates every second of every day to actual work.

Clearly he's spent more time trying to figure out a work around than he would have "wasted" if he just had access to personal email.

 

[nageov3t]

I never did understand why people need to access their personal email from work...or nef on company time. You're there to work...so get off the internet and get to work...dammed slackers!

my job leaves me with a bunch of 30-60 second intervals while waiting for something to load, a client to get back to me, etc... not enough time in which to do something productive, but a perfect amount of time to scan through a thread of send out an email.

 

[Mide]

Your company sucks. You know the IT peeps at your company have opened up their own hold to get to gmail.

 

[Icepick]

Damn entitlement mentality is going to ruin us all. This thread is a perfect example.

All of this is done for security and worker productivity. No thumb drives, no writable CDs and every e-mail is scrubbed for keywords incase any company secrets are sent. You're lucky if you can attach a file to e-mail.

Yup. As the network admin I was shocked to have a couple of end users approach me (on separate occasions) and complain that their Pandora audio was coming in choppy or that they wanted to have Real Player installed so that they could watch videos at work. They freely admitted it was just for entertainment purposes too.

 

[BoomerD]

my job leaves me with a bunch of 30-60 second intervals while waiting for something to load, a client to get back to me, etc... not enough time in which to do something productive, but a perfect amount of time to scan through a thread of send out an email.

Sounds like you need more work...

 

[Icepick]

Usually if someone goes to such lengths to block you specifically from accessing personal e-mail accounts, there's a reason for it.

This. If a network admin is going to block personal email then they'd better have this policy documented in an ironclad information security policy to fall back on when the angry hoards come calling.

 

[Homerboy]

This. If a network admin is going to block personal email then they'd better have this policy documented in an ironclad information security policy to fall back on when the angry hoards come calling.

would must they have it in an "ironclad information security policy"?
Its the companies network and resources. They do not have to give you a reason why the policy has been implmented. Out of "kindness" they should I agree, but they don't HAVE to do so.

 

[Nik]

HOW DARE YOU ALL BREATHE AT WORK

that's company air you're breathing

you bastards

 

[endervalentine]

I understand there are rules to protect the companies IP and I'm fine with IT scanning every word that goes out or everything that is printed but to not let people do it check their email or print their personal stuff is pretty restrictive.

To me a happy employee is a hard-working employee, we have free drinks, snacks and often you see people talking about last night's game or the newest gadget coming out. But you also see everything busting their butt to get things done, not just your regular 8-5er.

I thought this pretty normal, ala the dot com days ... it's not as open as before were people would bring their pets and stuff, but it still seem like most companies have a pretty relaxed environment.

 

[spidey07]

I understand there are rules to protect the companies IP and I'm fine with IT scanning every word that goes out or everything that is printed but to not let people do it check their email or print their personal stuff is pretty restrictive.

To me a happy employee is a hard-working employee, we have free drinks, snacks and often you see people talking about last night's game or the newest gadget coming out. But you also see everything busting their butt to get things done, not just your regular 8-5er.

I thought this pretty normal, ala the dot com days ... it's not as open as before were people would bring their pets and stuff, but it still seem like most companies have a pretty relaxed environment.

I have never heard of any company of decent size not blocking personal e-mail and chat programs. Viruses/worms cost too much money.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

I have never heard of any company of decent size not blocking personal e-mail and chat programs. Viruses/worms cost too much money.

I work for a large corporation, and to the best of my knowledge they do not block personal email access via web. I VPN onto the company network most times, but the few times I've actually been in-house and hard connected to the network I was still able to access gmail. I think even MSN messenger worked, as well.

 

[trmiv]

I have never heard of any company of decent size not blocking personal e-mail and chat programs. Viruses/worms cost too much money.

What do you consider decent size? My company has over 3000 employees, we don't block personal e-mail or chat programs. The company I worked at before this had over 165,000 employees and didn't block personal e-mail or chat programs.

 

[JTsyo]

would must they have it in an "ironclad information security policy"?
Its the companies network and resources. They do not have to give you a reason why the policy has been implmented. Out of "kindness" they should I agree, but they don't HAVE to do so.

Think the courts have ruled that checking/sending personal e-mail is the equivalent of making/taking personal phone calls while at work. I don't think there's any requirements for providing phone or e-mail access though.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

mail.com used to work out.

Crazy idea though. When at work, why don't you jsut work?

Speaking of that, good bye!

 

[Kev]

I have never heard of any company of decent size not blocking personal e-mail and chat programs. Viruses/worms cost too much money.

I've worked for 2 of the largest companies in the world in the past and neither restricted email or chat programs, or even used web filtering for that matter.

 

[olds]

That's the dumbest thing I have read.

Shens...

Homerboy
Lifer
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 15,514

 

[InflatableBuddha]

I've worked for 2 of the largest companies in the world in the past and neither restricted email or chat programs, or even used web filtering for that matter.

Same with my company - no restrictions, although obviously you're not allowed to surf porn etc.

Good companies place a certain level of trust in their employees by allowing them to access personal email and chat, while still trusting that they will complete their work (if they don't, of course they'll be canned). It makes for happier, more productive employees.