Is Big Brother Watching YOU at Work?

Every day, employees are learning the hard way that there is little or no "right is privacy" when using office computers, cell phones or email accounts. Think you can't get fired for personal things that you do at work? Here are a few examples you should read about:

- Bonita Bourke and Rhonda Hall sued Nissan for wrongful termination after their bosses read their e-mails at work. At trial, they lost, with the court holding that employees had no reasonable expectation of privacy in e-mails from a work account.

- Michael A. Smyth was fired by Pillsbury Co. for using the company email system to send inappropriate and unprofessional communications to his supervisor. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled in favor of Pillsbury, saying that Smyth had no right to privacy on a company-owned and monitored email system.

- When a company's network administrator reported that Jeffrey Ziegler had accessed child pornography web sites from his work computer, management cooperated with the FBI by turning over Ziegler's computer tower without a search warrant. The court held that the hard drive of an employer-owned computer, located in the employer's place of business, and subject to a written policy that says the employer is entitled to monitor what its employees did on the computer, meant that Ziegler had no legitimate expectation of privacy for that computer, and the seized evidence could be used against him at trial.

- A British single mom working as a secretary in Paris led a double life as a Bridget-Jones-type diarist. This would have been fine - except she chose write while at work, via her "La Petite Anglaise" blog, about her bosses and co-workers in the accounting firm where she was (as in past-tense) employed. Probably choosing headings like "Titillation", and using photos and colorful phrases, didn't help her defend against the firm's allegations of gross misconduct.

In my practice, I see many employees who get in trouble at work because they spend so much time at work that the line between what is "work" and what is "personal" becomes blurred - and they let down their guard. It's not hard to understand why an employee working ten to twelve hours a day may need to communicate with the spouse or kids while at work - or, perhaps, catch up on personal correspondence, shopping or searches via the internet. But you have to know what your employer's policy says about use, and abuse, of computers, email, internet, and phone systems, and be sure you follow it to the letter. Use your personal cell phone for all personal calls, and instruct everyone you know to send all personal emails, jokes, photos, chain letters, etc., only to your home email address. If you don't have a home email address, get one!

Some studies estimate that as many as 85% of all employers engage in some form cyberspace monitoring. They do this for several reasons. One is to protect themselves from legal liability (for example, against actors like Mr. Ziegler, with the child pornography). Another is to minimize lost workplace productivity. Indeed, one estimate holds that U.S. businesses lose approximately $63 billion dollars annually by compensating employees for time spent trading stocks, writing personal emails, or surfing the web for cyberporn.

Remember: Where workplace privacy interests run counter to the business interests of their employers, the employers' interests will usually prevail. So expect "Big Brother" to be watching.

Robin Bond, Esq., SPHR, is the managing partner of Transition Strategies, LLC, a law firm that represents individuals in employment matters. She can be contacted at 610-640-5373 or via www.robinbond.com.