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bulldog5046
Original Poster
963 posts
47 months
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Hi,
I'm an IT Admin and unfortunately it fall's at my feet when someone in the company i work for want access to another person's email. Specifically in this case, over the last 2 days i have been asked to grant access for HR personel to snoop through 5 different user's email accounts.
I strongly disagree with their action's and reasoning for doing this but i'm left wondering what the legal POV is for the matter?
HR are requesting and authorising these request's themselves, there is no further intervention from anyone high in the company to ensure they are only foing what is in the best interests of the company which is what really bother's me.
I feel like i'm failing to do my job properly by not protecting the business and employee's from themselves. Effectivly i'm giving HR a gun to shoot people with and firing people over such stupid things as sending a couple of personal emails is outrageous IMO.
It is written in the employment contracts that emails are monitored and checked but i'm not sure how this would really stand up in court, can a company just write law themselves?
Ideally, i'd like to put a strong case forward that we should stop doing this, but i'm not sure it's going to be possible?
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JFReturns
2,503 posts
40 months
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The employee has signed a contract agreeing the terms of their employment with your company. I don't think you have the right to deny HR access, morally or legally.
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Dracoro
6,678 posts
114 months
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Raise your concerns with your manager (via e-mail   ) He/She can then take it up further if they feel they should. If your manager tells you to do as they ask, then do so.
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joewilliams
1,465 posts
70 months
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Quite common.
I think you should seek clarification as to who, exactly, has the power to make these requests. I assume you're fairly large as you have an HR department. Perhaps recommend that two people's signatures, one of whom is a manager of x level or above, are required before access is granted. I would also clarify whether access is to be permanent or time-limited.
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Mr GrimNasty
2,470 posts
39 months
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TwigtheWonderkid
6,089 posts
19 months
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Seems reasonable to me. People shouldn't be putting personal stuff thru their work email address.
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Riley Blue
5,216 posts
95 months
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bulldog5046 said: It is written in the employment contracts that emails are monitored and checked but i'm not sure how this would really stand up in court, can a company just write law themselves? If your employer wants to restrict internet use to business use only, they can. If they want to monitor internet useage, they can. BTW - did you post from work?
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bulldog5046
Original Poster
963 posts
47 months
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Dracoro said: Raise your concerns with your manager (via e-mail ) He/She can then take it up further if they feel they should. If your manager tells you to do as they ask, then do so. I had the discussion yesterday and unfortunately the IT manager believes its absolutely find despite my examples of the damage that could be done. He also said if it were upto him he would give all managers full access to all of their staff email accounts. Scary stuff.
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bulldog5046
Original Poster
963 posts
47 months
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Mr GrimNasty said: This is a great article and raises the same points I did yesterday. I don't however believe they are adhering to the guidelines made out here.
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JustinP1
10,276 posts
99 months
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bulldog5046 said: Mr GrimNasty said: This is a great article and raises the same points I did yesterday. I don't however believe they are adhering to the guidelines made out here. Detecting unauthorised use of email is one of the exceptions stated, I guess this is what they are doing?
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McHaggis
7,758 posts
24 months
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There is a big difference between monitoring that email is being abused (for example, checking the target email address) - for example, lots going to private gmail addresses, or competitor.
And from allowing managers to freely read all of the emails (header, content, etc) of their employees...
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Steffan
6,190 posts
97 months
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TwigtheWonderkid said: Seems reasonable to me. People shouldn't be putting personal stuff thru their work email address. My view entirely. Employees do not have the right to use their employers computers for personal matters.. I would ask the question and follow your instructions in the matter.
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Dracoro
6,678 posts
114 months
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It's a bit like managers wanting to be on the phone line for all calls (or recording them etc.). Microphones/cameras/recording equipment all over the office to record conversations employees maybe having etc.
They "can" do this, according to contracts etc. and it's up to them how they treat their employees. Employees can either put up with it or move on. Depending on the context and reason, it's possible poor management as they may lose otherwise good employees.
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Disco You
1,735 posts
49 months
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bulldog5046 said: It is written in the employment contracts that emails are monitored and checked Well there you go then. They know that their emails aren't private so it's their own fault if they've been saying things they shouldn't.
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daz3210
5,000 posts
109 months
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An employee could always raise a grievance that their reasonable right to privacy has been breached.
If it has been breached by HR, then HR cannot very readily deal with the grievance can they? Its a bit like Bob Diamond chairing any investigation into the Libor fiasco if they did.
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bulldog5046
Original Poster
963 posts
47 months
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I believe they are reading specific content on personal emails sent/received.
The manner in which i've been instructed to provide access gives full mailbox access, they can read every single message in the active mailbox.
If they just wanted a list of email transactions (to, from, subject) then we could generate this report for them. I wouldnt object to this but i dislike the idea of someone reading someone elses personal mail.
My given example was what if someone is arranging a sex change? then someone from HR blurts it out and the whole company finds out? the company would be held lible and the employee could seek compensation.
At this point the damage has already been done. I'd rather the damage couldnt be done in the first place.
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PAULJ5555
910 posts
45 months
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If we put PRIVATE in the title, we are told IT will not read them if they need to look at our system, however that would go out of the window i suppose if HR were investigating somthing. Hopefuly not just HR snooping.
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daz3210
5,000 posts
109 months
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If the employee concerned knew the thing was going to be done, could they delete the mails? Or would there still be a way of the manager reading them? My thought is tip the employee off what is about to happen and suggest they 'clean' their mailboxes.
How do you know this isn't some kind of witch hunt to get rid of someone.
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Riley Blue
5,216 posts
95 months
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bulldog5046 said: I wouldnt object to this but i dislike the idea of someone reading someone elses personal mail. Does your employer have a 'business use only' policy with regard to e-mails sent from company computers? If so there should be no personal e-mails.
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PoleDriver
20,230 posts
63 months
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At my companies (UK) head office the MD gets copied on every e-mail moving in or out of the company which uses a company e-mail address.
Use of a personal e-mail address is allowed and not monitored.
The company policy is that the official e-mail system should only be used for official business but they do appreciate the fact that people sometimes need to have daytime contact for personal business.
A very refreshing attitude IMHO!
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