Team leader checking personal phone

CKhalvashi

pandaspot wrote: »

Personal phone

If it was a company phone (my employees are allowed to use them for personal use, or we'll reimburse a reasonable bill each month) then it's more than reasonable to use it to make a business call (if asked first)

But as a personal phone, definitely not.

DandelionPatrol

pandaspot wrote: »

Personal phone

That is, with respect, not enough of an answer.

Are you saying that you were wrong to say the phone is company owned? If you are still saying it is company owned, you need to provide some more explanation to reconcile the 2 conflicting statements.

TELLIT01

I'm also confused by the comment that Instant Messages are work owned but the texts are private. If the phone is personal property so is anything done on it.

TBagpuss

I assumed the the IMs were personal messages but on a work PC.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-work/monitoring-at-work/ may be useful.

If the phone belongs to your colleague personally then I do not think that your boss had any right to read the messages.

Are you in a union? If so, I'd ask them for advice. If not, try the ACAS helpline

andygb

TBagpuss wrote: »

If the phone belongs to your colleague personally then I do not think that your boss had any right to read the messages.

Are you in a union? If so, I'd ask them for advice. If not, try the ACAS helpline

All good advice, but in cases like this, you ALWAYS need witnesses to back you up, because without them you will quickly find your self on the receiving end of "revenge" treatment.:(

pandaspot

DandelionPatrol wrote: »

That is, with respect, not enough of an answer.

Are you saying that you were wrong to say the phone is company owned? If you are still saying it is company owned, you need to provide some more explanation to reconcile the 2 conflicting statements.

TELLIT01 wrote: »

I'm also confused by the comment that Instant Messages are work owned but the texts are private. If the phone is personal property so is anything done on it.

I'm saying the phone is owned by the colleague (personal phone not company owned) and the instant messages are on a work PC. Sorry I confused you

Tigsteroonie

I would say that the main issue is between your colleague and the TL, not you. It would be up to your colleague to raise this if they wanted.

pandaspot

TBagpuss wrote: »

I assumed the the IMs were personal messages but on a work PC.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-work/monitoring-at-work/ may be useful.

If the phone belongs to your colleague personally then I do not think that your boss had any right to read the messages.

Are you in a union? If so, I'd ask them for advice. If not, try the ACAS helpline

Yes I am in the union, I have advised my colleague to join ASAP and she will be doing this tomorrow. I had a sense of what this woman was like when I took the permanent contract. Glad I did tbh.

pandaspot

Tigsteroonie wrote: »

I would say that the main issue is between your colleague and the TL, not you. It would be up to your colleague to raise this if they wanted.

Yes I am aware of that, I need advice to pass to her and just wanted to see if the tl would be allowed to look at a personal mobile and read messages. I will be complaining about other matters relating to the TL.

DandelionPatrol

pandaspot wrote: »

Yes I am aware of that, I need advice to pass to her and just wanted to see if the tl would be allowed to look at a personal mobile and read messages. I will be complaining about other matters relating to the TL.

The TL is allowed to look at messages on a personal phone if the owner of the phone lets them. In that sense, I think your main complaint for your messages is against your friend for giving in.

I think you have more than adequate grounds however to tell the TL that your messages to your friend are personal and that as far as you are concerned the TL has been as rude as if she bullied your friend into handing over a personal letter from you for inspection. You need to make it totally clear that this is a personal and not a work complaint. And you need to make it clear that it is the arrogance which concerns you, not the fact that she has seen the contents.