[Kobi]

Originally Posted by adorable

I know someone who worked for the county that was fired for using the work computer to do personal searches. I consider myself lucky to work for the person that I do and have absolute freedom when it comes to those things.

Who we are is so complicated that I wonder if we can ask people to not be who they are in order to work someplace. How does that line get drawn? Who gets to decide?

It's making my head hurt.

I think that what I do for a living is a big part of who I am, but it's not the only part. Yet I do represent my company. Where does our life start and work stop?

Excellent questions!

Workers rights advocates have grappled with numerous issues like this over the years from a reasonable workday, to benefits, to drug testing, to non smoking environments, to threatening to fire smokers who only smoke in their own homes!

I havent any good answer. I think in our lives we have reciprocal relationships in all that we do. Mortgages require certain behavior from us or we face the consequences. Same with car loans.

I dont see much difference with employers. We enter into an employment contract with an organization agreeing to certain wages, benefits, dress codes, standards of behavior etc. Organizations make certain rules to comply with various regulations in addition to determining their own image, level of service, expected modes of eperation etc. The behavior of workers can reflect on the organization which sometimes is not a big deal but sometimes is a federal or state crime.

Technology has added a new dimension to the workplace. The organization I worked for kept adding to the expectations and consequences as technology improved, became more widespread, and better monitored.

I am gathering from what you said, you have the freedom to roam the internet on work time. In my organization, you would be warned about the inappropriate use of the internet on worktime several times before you were fired.

I suspect organizations implicitly set their own rules and requirements as a condition of employment. Is posting messages disagreeing with policies and processes in a public forum a violation or just poor judgement? Tough call. Depends on the organizational rules. Depends on the contract, implicit or explicit, that was entered into.

We dont live in a vacuum where anything goes. We have rules and regulations everywhere supposedly designed for the benefit of the whole sometimes at the expense of the one. We need to be mindful of the reciprocity involved in many aspects of our lives. Behavior has consequences for one reason or another, sometimes positive, sometimes not.

We are not, in my mind, totally free to do whatever we want whenever we want wherever we want to do it.