A drawback of having computers and internet at work is that affords us the opportunity to get in more trouble as employees. If you work in an office long enough, you are sure to make a few close friends in the office. Depending on where you sit in proportion to each other, there may be a temptation to e-mail each other throughout the workday. Just remember, there is a good chance your employer could be watching you.
For instance, recent surveys have shown that employers tend to read about 5 to 10 percent of all employees company e-mails. What’s more, they often flag keywords and may be reading all e-mails that fall under that flag. The best thing to do is to take your personal conversations off the company network and into your private e-mails, perhaps through gmail. It only takes a few extra moments to pull up the off site e-mail and it could potentially save your job.
You also need to restrict the sites you visit to work sites. Just because your company doesn’t block sites like craigslist, facebook, or yahoo fantasy sports, doesn’t mean they are not monitoring your usage. In fact, it’s more likely that they are at least monitoring to make sure there are some legitimate sites being worked in along with the non work related sites. Abuse of such a system could result in almost no sites being available to users. The worst case scenario is you lose your job over it.
When it comes to your career you can’t afford to take any chances. To be fired because of such an infraction would be not only embarrassing but potentially carer suicide. Potential employers will be glad to interview you if you’ve been laid off but much more reluctant if you were fired for face-booking too much. Be smart about your choices at work.