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    Flip floping on Guidelines

    Posted by: rdmessler
    Date: 12/9/2005 9:54:07 PM

    I am a department manager at a mid-sized company who recently started watching my employees internet/email use because of observed abuse. The survelliance was eventually detected by one of my employees who confronted me regarding it and proceeded to discuss the matter with others outside of the department. This ultimately made its way to the President of the company who hauled myself and some others into his office in order to read us the riot act. His concern was survelliance of this type sends a bad signal to the employees and should never been done without his authorization.

    Understanding the he is the President of the privately owned company and can make the rules, I relented to his rule even though I felt that I was within my right to examine company owned property. (computers)

    Within a few days I discovered my company has a written policy regarding all communication equipment. (phone, email, internet) It clearly states the employee should in no way interpret the use of these systems as private and the comapny reserves the right to examine these systems at any time for any reason.

    Having learned of this policy I have become infuriated by the way I was treated by the President. He certainly has the right to modify and/or clarify the rules but don't call me on the carpet for not being able to read his mind. My sense is this occurence has caused damage in how I am perceived and my upcoming annual review is going to reflect this event. As I strongly feel I had applied the guidelines as they were written, any negative comments regarding this matter which may appear on my review should not be tolerated. As a last course I believe legal action could be warranted. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

    Reply from: wax2metal
    Date: 12/17/2005 2:32:00 PM
    Reply: First of all, did you clarify the rules to your employees about abusing e-mail and internet before you started going on the computers? Your employees need to trust you to be able to respect you. First you need to lighten up a little. If they are missing deadlines, fallling behind on there daily tasks or going on sites that are "suspect" then yes action should be taken but maybe you should have discussed it with HR or the president for advice on the situation. Micromanaging would be the reason for a bad annual review not the computer monitoring.
    Reply from: laura97
    Date: 12/19/2005 12:09:00 AM
    Reply: I agree with wax2metal. You may have been within your rights. However, such an action on your part should have been cleared by someone higher up. Suggest that there be a process in place to get the chain of command in the loop. Good luck!
    Reply from: rdmessler
    Date: 12/19/2005 9:11:00 AM
    Reply: Folks: My boss (the general manager) was in the loop. If he didn't have a problem with my actions, than that's all I needed to concern myself about. And in so far as micromanaging is concerned, I don't see myself in that realm. My employees have free reign to do almost anything they want as long as (stated by wax2metal) deadlines are met and they don't fall behind on their daily tasks. Consuling of employees that fall behind had already occurred long ago with no effect due to the employees continued use of the companies business systems for personal use. Therefore steps were taken to document this behavior and issue a verbal warning. My entire point to this matter is that I followed the rules and received approval to apply them only to have someone that I don't directly report to circumvent the system. My only failure during this whole time was my inability to be able to read the President's mind.

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