Saturday, September 09, 2006
Draw Me a Line
There is an article in the September 11, 2006 issue of TIME magazine about corporations and personal privacy.
They share a story of a man who got fired after he called in sick. And his boss checked his story via a software program that located the GPS location of his cell phone. And found that he was driving away from the city.
OK, so lying to your boss is a bad thing to do. But...spying...is...so...dirty.
With the advent of the Blackberrys, cheap broadband internet access, VPN, cell phones, and a global system of suppliers and customers that never sleeps, the line between work time and personal time has been blurred, in some cases removed completely. One is never free from the tether of the office.
If a corporation gets irritated about personal use of the company internet or phones, and they have a policy that results in termination, then I think they cannot expect any after hours support. That is, when the employee is in the building he is free game; after he walks out the door at the end of the work day, he is no longer reachable. No emergencies, no late night conference calls, he is free.
Where I work this is not a problem. The engineers check and respond to their work email while they are on vacation, but in turn they have freedom to take care of personal buisiness during the "work day". The company doesn't set your hours. You work the schedule that is appropriate for your situation. This is an example of a progressive company, which realizes that the boss-to-employee relationship is just that, a relationship. A relationship that involves giving and taking, and compromise.
I am not advocating lying to your boss about being sick. My boss trusts me. Because I am trustworthy. If you are not, your boss will figure it out -- he is not stupid -- and you will get fired. But spying--which, like lying, violates that trust relationship--is not the way to do it. ¶ 11:13 AM
There is an article in the September 11, 2006 issue of TIME magazine about corporations and personal privacy.
They share a story of a man who got fired after he called in sick. And his boss checked his story via a software program that located the GPS location of his cell phone. And found that he was driving away from the city.
OK, so lying to your boss is a bad thing to do. But...spying...is...so...dirty.
With the advent of the Blackberrys, cheap broadband internet access, VPN, cell phones, and a global system of suppliers and customers that never sleeps, the line between work time and personal time has been blurred, in some cases removed completely. One is never free from the tether of the office.
If a corporation gets irritated about personal use of the company internet or phones, and they have a policy that results in termination, then I think they cannot expect any after hours support. That is, when the employee is in the building he is free game; after he walks out the door at the end of the work day, he is no longer reachable. No emergencies, no late night conference calls, he is free.
Where I work this is not a problem. The engineers check and respond to their work email while they are on vacation, but in turn they have freedom to take care of personal buisiness during the "work day". The company doesn't set your hours. You work the schedule that is appropriate for your situation. This is an example of a progressive company, which realizes that the boss-to-employee relationship is just that, a relationship. A relationship that involves giving and taking, and compromise.
I am not advocating lying to your boss about being sick. My boss trusts me. Because I am trustworthy. If you are not, your boss will figure it out -- he is not stupid -- and you will get fired. But spying--which, like lying, violates that trust relationship--is not the way to do it. ¶ 11:13 AM