Re: Apparently the spying was legal.


"Dave K" <dave.k@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:lu13r15j93miqsbd8qcjfr43b2cqsu5j1p@xxxxxxxxxx
> On Tue, 27 Dec 2005 09:23:59 -0500, Just Judy <Just_Joody@xxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 26 Dec 2005 08:42:08 -0600, "Amused"
>><Amused@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>>We didn't routinely search employee's desks, but since the desks were
>>>government property, our instructions were that we could.
>>
>> In my working life, every act I performed on company property,
>>and every piece of company property belonged to the employer, and they
>>could, if they so choose, without providing reason, search my desk and
>>all their equipment. If I objected, the door was nearby. This is/was
>>so basic to my belief system that it seems strange to me that anyone
>>could disagree ... but I know many do. ;)
>>
>> With the advent of computers at the employees' desks, nothing
>>about the above rule was changed: It's theirs, not mine; therefore, I
>>expect no right to privacy about anything I do on the equipment. This
>>would include telephone equipment, as well as copying equipment. No
>>matter the item, unless I paid for it, it was theirs. Simple, eh?
>
> For the most part, I agree with the spirit of it, but the devil is
> in the details.
>
> There are locker rooms and bathouses on the company property where
> employees, both men and women, change into company provided work
> clothing. Is it appropriate for the company to place cameras there to
> record that activity? It is their property.
>
> As far as telephone usage goes, is it OK for the company to listen
> in on phone conversations of their employees? On the surface, using
> your premise that it is company equipment, the answer might be yes.
> However, there are laws...
>
> The laws vary from state to state, but in this state, at least one
> party to a phone conversation must know if it is being recorded.
>
> As far as the bills go? What if an employee makes a collect call?
> Would it be appropriate for the company to listen in on that, since
> the employee was paying for the call? Sure, the call was made on
> company equipment, and on company property, and lets allow that it was
> on company time too.
>
> Honestly, I don't know what the right answer is. On the one hand,
> an employee ought to have a reasonable right to privacy in their
> person, and their personal affairs. The company also has an
> obligation to provide a profitable, safe, non-threatening, workplace
> for it's employees.
>
> If all parties involved were ethical, and moral, it does not seem
> there should be a problem. We know that is not the case.
>
> The question, in my mind anyway, is where do you give the advantage.
> Do you give the advantage to to corporate entities who have lawyers,
> and huge funding, or to the worker that does not. In the final
> analysis, that is part of what laws are supposed to do; even the
> playing field somewhat.
> --
>
> Cheers! :)

Reference telephone calls. The US Government has regulations concerning
their usage. Call a government number and you're likely to hear, "This call
may be monitored for quality assurance", IF caller ID on the internal
switching system, does not recognize an internal government number.

ALL incoming telephone call numbers are logged, even if the phone call
itself is not "monitored".

For years, NO personal calls were allowed from government phones. Period.
I have personally witnessed a Regional Commissioner, a person whom 10,000
people said "Yes, Sir!", standing out in the hallway of the Federal Office
building making a call on a pay phone. (This was before cell phones became
so ubiquitous.)

Emergency messages to employees were routed through personnel, where they
were transcribed and then a paper note, "Call home" or "Call your wife," was
hand delivered to the employee. (In large installations, this does have an
upside, in that an employee might be off in training classes, staff
meetings, temporarily reassigned, but personnel would track them down, no
matter where they were.)

I can remember one instance, hmmm, about '85 or '86 when I gave an
recognition award to one of my employees, Paula R. Now, to be gentle,
Paula, a file clerk, was just this side of retarded, but she worked
diligently, every day, all day, and produced entirely acceptable, if not
outstanding work. Her award announcement one of the very few times when
every single employee in the audience not only clapped, but cheered an award
selection.

After the announcement, I called her back to my desk, and congratulated her.
She was in tears, anyway. I asked if she would like to call her family and
let them know about the award. "I cannot. It's against the rules."
(Paula's family, mother, father, brothers and sisters, was the only reason
that Paula succeeded. They made sure she was at work, every day.)

"Well, I can authorize it. Call them up. Consider it an order." She cried
on the phone with her mother, too.

And I DOCUMENTED (meaning I had the secretary type a file note, which I
signed) Paula's personnel file that I had authorized a private non-emergency
phone call.


.

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