Work email and you.

[Josh123]

Do you use your work email account for personal use? Does your company really care if you do?

I just got an email from my boss to all of us techs saying:

Team,

FYI, All email accounts are being monitored closely for personal use. So please do not use your work email for anything personal, incoming and outgoing.

Just a heads up.

In my opinion I don't see a big deal but oh well.

 

[calvinbiss]

No.

 

[soulcougher73]

No

 

[kranky]

No. Might get a couple a year from former co-workers who only know my work email but I just send them my personal email and continue the conversation that way.

 

[dougp]

I don't, and I know my manager uses it to sign up for quite a few things that aren't work related. I do know that my company doesn't hesitate to monitor what you send/receive (transport rules setup to auto-forward to a manager, etc.), as well as my wife's company doing that. Most company handbooks are very strict in that sense, and you can be terminated if you misuse your email.

 

[Josh123]

Hmm, I guess since my last boss at my previous job didn't really care I figured it wasn't a big deal.

I guess I was wrong.

 

[bononos]

The company doesn't want to waste $0.02 for every non-work related email.

 

[mvbighead]

Plain and simple, your company work email can me monitored by your company. Gmail, not so much.

If you use work email for personal use, and someone sends you something they shouldn't, it could be your ass in the ringer. Further, if you setup everything to use your work email, and you leave your job or get fired/layed off, you're going to have to reconfigure everything for your new email account. If you leave it as your personal account, so long as gmail/hotmail/whatever doesn't shut down their service, you are set for good.

 

[slsmnaz]

I use it for personal stuff and no one has said anything about it. Lots of people in our office do since we're logged on so much

 

[LookBehindYou]

No.

 

[rudder]

With so many free easily accessible email options... why would you use work email for personal stuff? If someone send you a x-rated FWD and the bored IT dude is a douche and wants to make trouble for you... why risk it?

 

[ch33zw1z]

Everything we do is monitored. Hence why I'm SSH'd into my home PC to troll AT

 

[Oyeve]

I control the email at work so I dont care what my peeps do as long as it doesnt fuck up my server, then I jump down their throats. I am the one doing the monitoring and they know it so they keep cool.

 

[ViviTheMage]

hell no

 

[mvbighead]

I control the email at work so I dont care what my peeps do as long as it doesnt fuck up my server, then I jump down their throats. I am the one doing the monitoring and they know it so they keep cool.

This is precisely the thing. You have access. That's one person too many, especially when it comes to affecting one's income.

All it takes is HR to say that they are building a case against Mr. Smith, and eventually they'll want to take a peek at email or what have you, and next thing you know, they found something bad enough (like a received forwarded racist joke) and you're done.

One good example of why you don't use work email for personal use:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2012/06/racy-emails-cost-schools-chief-her-new-job/

 

[Rastus]

I figured it out early. When email first got started, before internet days, there were lots of questionable things sent around the office, and forwarded. Someone got offended, went to the boss, and a good friend of mine got fired. I've never used work email for anything but work.

 

[yllus]

Why would you need to? I thought everyone in the world at this point simply kept a tab of Gmail open to access their personal e-mail.

 

[Zeze]

Why would you need to? I thought everyone in the world at this point simply kept a tab of Gmail open to access their personal e-mail.

Isn't anything done on work network easily monitored, including gmail?

 

[ch33zw1z]

Why would you need to? I thought everyone in the world at this point simply kept a tab of Gmail open to access their personal e-mail.

That's still personal email ON work time. Some companies don't allow this.

 

[blackdogdeek]

Do you use your work email account for personal use?

hell no

Does your company really care if you do?

hell yes

 

[NetWareHead]

Isn't anything done on work network easily monitored, including gmail?

If you secure the communications between you and Gmail it becomes much more difficult, one way to do that is make Gmail use HTTPS only. Another guy here mentioned SSH'ing to his home PC.

 

[dougp]

Why would you need to? I thought everyone in the world at this point simply kept a tab of Gmail open to access their personal e-mail.

And you don't think that a comapny capable of monitoring their email system isn't capable of doing the same thing for web traffic?

 

[mcurphy]

I use my work email all the time for personal use. I keep in contact with a few former coworkers, and also my wife.

Many companies use programs such as Websense to block webmail, so I think that is probably why many will use work email for personal use.

 

[Possessed Freak]

Yes.

No.

Education: pretty laid back.

 

[yllus]

Isn't anything done on work network easily monitored, including gmail?

That's still personal email ON work time. Some companies don't allow this.

And you don't think that a comapny capable of monitoring their email system isn't capable of doing the same thing for web traffic?

Oh, it's absolutely monitorable (a word?), but there's a huge jump in the ease in which IT can simply read your Exchange mailbox and them setting up effective packet sniffing to read what's going over your particular connection.