Employer reading emails without consent.

Brie

Smithcom said:

I do appreciate that these days, employee like to tell employers when they are going to work.   One of the reasons that there are so many problems in the UK, not least DVLA and any other number of Government Depts.

SC.

What?  What's it got to do with the DVLA? Or any other government department what hours someone works for their employer?  Other than if it affects their pay and therefore their benefits?

Or are you suggesting that the whole world should still be working 9 - 5, M - F?

Smithcom

Brie said:

Smithcom said:

I do appreciate that these days, employee like to tell employers when they are going to work.   One of the reasons that there are so many problems in the UK, not least DVLA and any other number of Government Depts.

SC.

What?  What's it got to do with the DVLA? Or any other government department what hours someone works for their employer?  Other than if it affects their pay and therefore their benefits?

Or are you suggesting that the whole world should still be working 9 - 5, M - F?

I'm pretty sure that's not what I said.   I'm simply saying that there appears to be much leakage of resource, through WFH arrangements where employees may not be working as effectively as they would be otherwise.   

prowla

tightauldgit said:

prowla said:

Who owns the laptop and is it provided for work purposes?

If people aren't doing their work then they're not being given enough work to do...

Or maybe they are good at their jobs and finished in an hour what all the "hard-workers" who put in the face time take a whole day plus a couple of hours of overtime to do?

Any employer that was monitoring me to this apparent extent would be my ex-employer in short notice. 

Constantly monitoring and punishing your workers went out of fashion with the cotton fields. It's also something that is wide open to potential abuse. 

tightauldgit said:

Smithcom said:

happyc84 said:

Hi, The company I work for are reading emails from Employees and are taking action against some of the staff, saying that they were working from Home and not doing enough work, this is from looking at their work laptop.

Do they need to tell the staff that all activity is being monitored. They didn't complete a agreement during on-boarding so interested to see if this has happened in your work place.

This sounds like a good positive move by the employer, to ensure that their employees are actually working whilst at home.   

If they staff are doing what they should be doing (and being paid for), they will have absolutely nothing to worry about.

What is your concern?  

SC

Yeah I can't think of any reason why an employer might not want to appear to model itself on a Victorian workhouse either.

A Victorian workhouse and the cotton fields - crikey!

prowla

happyc84 said:

prowla said:

Who owns the laptop and is it provided for work purposes?

If people aren't doing their work then they're not being given enough work to do...

The original question related to a company who fired someone who they said wasn't pulling their weight during 1 week of  work after 4 months from starting date. The working pattern was office 60% site works 20% and WFH at 20%; as an example week 40+ hours.

As there was no written policy - will put this down to lessons learned, I also resigned from this company for other reasons.

The notion that person A who works constantly from 9-5 is more productive than someone Person B who does not is outdated.

For those who complain about others - how many work hours are lost due to their own idle chat.  

Note that I said if they "aren't doing their work", which is not the same as your person A/person B postulation.

Own_Worst_Enermy

Yep they can delete whatever they like when it satisfies them, and then be called poor unsupported employer when it’s ok MSE will mop their bow then they don’t understand why. Employees who suffer their accounts being deleted will just be called Out because it suits someone 
‘s ignorance and no understanding the employer wasn’t there when needed. But they are really the most ‘supportive’ employer in the world, 🤣🤣🤣

OrbitHeadache

Not read all this thread so sorry of this has been covered...

Why would anyone use work email address for personal use? Only thing I can think of is getting leverage by using work email address domain so for example ( joebloggs@gov.uk) Emailing in such a capacity for personal use might give you more perceived gravitas when making a complaint to your energy provider, internet provider etc.

However that will also more than likely get you the sack, so again why use work email for personal use? It's not like you need to spend money to get a personal email address 

happyc84

OrbitHeadache said:

Not read all this thread so sorry of this has been covered...

Why would anyone use work email address for personal use? Only thing I can think of is getting leverage by using work email address domain so for example ( joebloggs@gov.uk) Emailing in such a capacity for personal use might give you more perceived gravitas when making a complaint to your energy provider, internet provider etc.

However that will also more than likely get you the sack, so again why use work email for personal use? It's not like you need to spend money to get a personal email address 

sorry my post was about a company reviewing the work that was done on the company laptop, then saying that the person was not productive enough, nothing about using company email.
As I said there was no written policy about the employer reviewing work on laptop without consent.

If you go on to amazon you can buy a mouse (mice) that can show you as being active all the time. cue jokes about mice on a wheel.

molerat

Surely it is no different to your manager looking at your desk and if the in tray is full and the out tray empty you are not working hard enough ?

goater78

happyc84 said:

OrbitHeadache said:

Not read all this thread so sorry of this has been covered...

Why would anyone use work email address for personal use? Only thing I can think of is getting leverage by using work email address domain so for example ( joebloggs@gov.uk) Emailing in such a capacity for personal use might give you more perceived gravitas when making a complaint to your energy provider, internet provider etc.

However that will also more than likely get you the sack, so again why use work email for personal use? It's not like you need to spend money to get a personal email address 

sorry my post was about a company reviewing the work that was done on the company laptop, then saying that the person was not productive enough, nothing about using company email.
As I said there was no written policy about the employer reviewing work on laptop without consent.

If you go on to amazon you can buy a mouse (mice) that can show you as being active all the time. cue jokes about mice on a wheel.

https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/home-office-busy-working-from-home-simpsons-typing-gif-19960965

born_again

Treat WFH, just the same as being in the office & you have no problems. Start taking the micky & they will catch you one way or another.
We have to have open chats going, as well as systems that time out if not used (so no sneaking of to take kids to school or walk the dog) But they are quite happy with a quick Someone at door with delivery message.

Big brother watches you in the office, just the same as at home. Only a manager can't sit talking to someone else, while really watching over your shoulder to see if you are working.

But why would you send personal emails via work server, or even worse emails slating work policies like some do.. Just plain stupid 😶‍🌫️