Company banning LinkedIn contacts?

[a7x88]

Hello,

Just wondering what people's thoughts are on this...

An "all staff" email has been sent round to all employees stating that it is against company policy to connect with any "suspect, prospect or customer" of our company. They refer to our company IT policy which only has a point stating that all business contacts or contact lists are company property. They have now asked that any contacts we have that could be classified under the above be removed before the new year.

Personally I think this is a step to far. I work in field sales and obviously having a wealth of contacts and building relationships is key to success. To aid with this I do use LinkedIn as a tool - as do most of our sales force. As such I am reluctant to remove any of my contacts. This has possibly come about due to some over enthusiastic telesales people rubbing some contact up the wrong way (unfortunately this happens far to often!) and as such could be a general warning to them but who knows!

Anyway am I being ridiculous or is the company overstepping the mark?? Answers on a postcard...

[Chipchap]

Amend your details and delete the company that you work for and delete it from your work history. That way you still have all of the contacts but no reference your employer. Ergo the contacts are yours not theirs ?


A

[JQ]

A few contacts I have do not include their surname, so are not searchable, eg Dave C. You could do this.

[anonymous-user]

Probably due to issues of ex employees trying to take the contacts away with them as their personal info, not the company's, when they leave.

If you had an active LinkedIn account prior to joining them, it could be seen as your account & property, hence their concern you could take it all with you when you leave.

[davepoth]

Or I could do what I always do and write down phone numbers and email addresses on a scrap of paper.

You'll be causing trouble for yourself if you refuse their request unfortunately, so all you can do is tell your boss that you are doing it, but it's stupid.

[0000]

Surely they must be desperate or losing the plot to be doing that?

I'd be looking to get out now either way.

[davepoth]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Security always looked for USB keys and IT could see if we were emailing ouselves things. Bits of paper on the other hand went without comment.

[gaz1234]

We block it.

[CypherP]

If you have a Premium LinkedIn license paid for by your company, then I can see the contact ownership situation being a bit of an issue. However, if this is your own personal free user account, aside from blocking access to the site altogether, they don't stand a chance enforcing ownership of your contacts.

Does this demand mention the use of LinkedIn on mobile devices? I can understand companies being nervous about the increased use of LinkedIn, but on the flipside, people will only move if there is something that motivates them to do so.

OP, your employer sounds a lot more nervous about it's use instead of someone just rubbing a client up the wrong way, as the solution would be to just warn people about contact with that particular client, surely? Have you had a speight of people leaving?

[anonymous-user]

a7x88 said:

Hello,

Just wondering what people's thoughts are on this...

An "all staff" email has been sent round to all employees stating that it is against company policy to connect with any "suspect, prospect or customer" of our company. They refer to our company IT policy which only has a point stating that all business contacts or contact lists are company property. They have now asked that any contacts we have that could be classified under the above be removed before the new year.

Personally I think this is a step to far. I work in field sales and obviously having a wealth of contacts and building relationships is key to success. To aid with this I do use LinkedIn as a tool - as do most of our sales force. As such I am reluctant to remove any of my contacts. This has possibly come about due to some over enthusiastic telesales people rubbing some contact up the wrong way (unfortunately this happens far to often!) and as such could be a general warning to them but who knows!

Anyway am I being ridiculous or is the company overstepping the mark?? Answers on a postcard...

Most companies consider their customer lists to be confidential information. If an employee were to leave with such a list, the company would be entitled to start legal proceedings to stop them using that information. It doesn't matter whether the information is ctrl-a/ctrl-c/ctrl-v'd on the employee's last day, built up over time on a excel spreadsheet or scraps of paper at home, or stored on a remote server (eg Linkedin), or deliberately committed to memory by rote learning so as not to leave a trail.

On the other hand, no company can protect itself against former employees carrying off the contents of their heads - the stuff that gets embedded with no particular effort in an employee's head over time is fair game.

Sounds like someone has twigged that linkedin offers a route to constructing a fairly hefty chunk of a customer list; especially if (say) a fair proportion of a sales force decided to leave at the same time and go to a competitor.

Realistically though, contact details aren't that difficult to reconstruct after departure - most sales people can remember their key contacts without having to make a conscious effort to commit them to memory, and then it's just a question of looking them up. What really rattles cages is an outgoing employee taking a customer list a pricing lists.

So if you play nicely now, you stay on the right side of the line. Ignore it, and you run the risk of having fingers pointed at you one day.

[bad company]

I understood that Linkedin contacts belong to the individual. I don't think the op's employer can enforce this policy or do anything about it if the op decides not to comply.

I see where the firm are coming from but wonder if they are shooting themselves in the foot as they are really highlighting their fears to their staff.

[Engineer1]

CypherP said:

If you have a Premium LinkedIn license paid for by your company, then I can see the contact ownership situation being a bit of an issue. However, if this is your own personal free user account, aside from blocking access to the site altogether, they don't stand a chance enforcing ownership of your contacts.

Does this demand mention the use of LinkedIn on mobile devices? I can understand companies being nervous about the increased use of LinkedIn, but on the flipside, people will only move if there is something that motivates them to do so.

OP, your employer sounds a lot more nervous about it's use instead of someone just rubbing a client up the wrong way, as the solution would be to just warn people about contact with that particular client, surely? Have you had a speight of people leaving?

And an Employer who starts dicking you arround like that with LinkedIn could be the straw that broke the camels back.

[GadgeS3C]

bad company said:

I understood that Linkedin contacts belong to the individual. I don't think the op's employer can enforce this policy or do anything about it if the op decides not to comply.

I see where the firm are coming from but wonder if they are shooting themselves in the foot as they are really highlighting their fears to their staff.

I attended a legal seminar on this a while ago and IIRC case law was that the employer was considered to own contacts, not the employee.

[CypherP]

GadgeS3C said:

I attended a legal seminar on this a while ago and IIRC case law was that the employer was considered to own contacts, not the employee.

Thanks for this. It prompted me to do a bit more digging. Some interesting points for and against in the following article.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/work-blog/2013/se...

[GadgeS3C]

CypherP said:

GadgeS3C said:

I attended a legal seminar on this a while ago and IIRC case law was that the employer was considered to own contacts, not the employee.

Thanks for this. It prompted me to do a bit more digging. Some interesting points for and against in the following article.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/work-blog/2013/se...

Interesting, isn't it? I suggested in the seminar that Linkedin might want to be supporting some of the cases as it could knock some big holes in their business model.

Edited by GadgeS3C on Wednesday 4th December 15:29

[CypherP]

GadgeS3C said:

CypherP said:

GadgeS3C said:

I attended a legal seminar on this a while ago and IIRC case law was that the employer was considered to own contacts, not the employee.

Thanks for this. It prompted me to do a bit more digging. Some interesting points for and against in the following article.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/work-blog/2013/se...

Interesting, isn't it? I suggested in the seminar that Linkedin might want to be supporting some of the cases as it could knock some big holes in their business model.

Definitely - relating back to the OP though, in a situation such as his, I'd question whether the employer would really choose to challenge each and every user over the contacts they maintain using the site. Seems to me like the business is more nervous about other avenues available via the tool to enforce such strict policies governing it's use.

[a7x88]

Thanks for the info/your opinions! I think i'm going to bury my head in the sand for now and see what happens; I was on annual leave when the email was sent so I think I "forgot to do it" when I returned to work. If asked I will remove them - I don't think its worth rubbing HR/my director up the wrong way over especially considering the doubt cast over ownership in those articles.

I would tend to agree it is a bit of a "heavy handed" way of going about things though...... hmmmm

ETA: It is a personal LinkedIn account that i have had since before joining this company and they do not pay any subscriptions etc for me.

Edited by a7x88 on Wednesday 4th December 21:10

[a7x88]

Thanks for the info/your opinions! I think i'm going to bury my head in the sand for now and see what happens; I was on annual leave when the email was sent so I think I "forgot to do it" when I returned to work. If asked I will remove them - I don't think its worth rubbing HR/my director up the wrong way over especially considering the doubt cast over ownership in those articles.

I would tend to agree it is a bit of a "heavy handed" way of going about things though...... hmmmm

ETA: It is a personal LinkedIn account that i have had since before joining this company and they do not pay any subscriptions etc for me.

Edited by a7x88 on Wednesday 4th December 21:10

[Carl_Docklands]

Control freaks, gotta love 'em.

[hman]

Find a new job - this kind of tttery should not be accepted by anyone.