Rules and more Rules! I'm sick of rules!

[JeepKat]

To all (company name) employees:
It has come to my attention that employees are using our company work tools for personal use. This includes email, internet, etc. Please remember that these tools are provided to increase our efficiency, improve our productivity and our work environment. They are for (company name) business use only. Misuse of company work tools can lead to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.

With regard to email, if you are sending or forwarding chain letters, jokes, cartoons, etc. to friends and co-workers you must immediately stop. We understand that you may not have control over what you receive, but if you are receiving personal email from friends or co-workers, you need to delete the email and let them know that you cannot receive personal email at work. Ask them to take you off distribution lists.

Remember that all information located on work computers and all messages composed, sent or received on the electronic mail are the property of (company name). The Company may review, audit, intercept and disclose all messages created, received or sent over the electronic or voice mail systems without notice or employee permission at any time as well as monitor Internet usage and sites visited while using Company computer resources.

(company name) Internet User's Guide and Your Employee Handbook are available online in the Employee Center section of the (company name) Intranet (located at http://***.**.**.**.) For complete details please refer to Your Employee Handbook under the General Policies and Procedures tab. The topics referred to here are located on page ** Personal Telephone Calls, pages **-** Telecommunication Systems, Equipment and Services and page ** Voicemail and Email Systems.

If you have any questions about our company policies please feel free to contact me at ***-***-****.

Managers & Supervisors, please assure that this communication gets to all employees in your department.

Thank you,

[Darrell C]

It's common...and getting more so.

We have the same rules/restrictions at my job. In addition, it's been made very clear all internet traffic is monitored, and many departments have their e-mail and internet access filtered and/or blocked.

Because I work for government, and the nature of my work, I've authorized removal of all filters and blocks for my staff (we used to be blocked for any sites with the words "Terrorist", "Bioterrorism", "Weapons of Mass Destruction", etc. on the website. And any e-mail attachments were screened for similar wording and removed). This blocking interfered with our ability to perform our job. However, this has not and will not stop the I.T. guys from monitoring our internet traffic...and they do.

The I.T. guys wanted to enable a process on my work PC whereby I can monitor the web sites and internet traffic of my employee's. I told them "No way. If I can't trust my employee's to get the job done, and done properly, then I've got bigger issues at hand". That was a little too big-brotherish for me.