Precisely. There need to be carve outs. I need to be able to check my bank balance to see if I can afford lunch with my coworkers. I need to be able to receive messages about my family’s health and well-being. I need to do this without my employer then having unfettered access to sexy wife pics and my full banking history.
As an employer, I don’t want you checking your bank balance on my equipment. I don’t want to know that about you. I don’t want to worry about accidentally storing your confidential bank info on my servers and then if I have a breach it’s way worse because now your bank info is breached.
And mainly, as an employer I need all the info on your computer, it’s valuable. And there’s not a way to filter out what’s weard_beard’s family messaging them vs work stuff. So I just keep it all.
Of course I don’t do that because I don’t employ people, but that seems rational if I did.
So what I do, individually, is I have a phone. It belongs to me. If I want to check my bank balance, I use my phone. If I want to receive messages about my family’s health, I get them on my phone.
Even if my employer promised never to monitor my work computer, and they kept their promise, I wouldn’t want my kids’ school messaging me on my work email or my work phone.
As an employer you don’t want to give bathroom breaks or pay a living wage either. I’m saying these are part of employing humans. Let’s find a way to make it work
I definitely want to give bathroom breaks and pay great wages. That’s how I get happy and productive humans.
No one needs to check their bank balance on their work computer to be happy and productive. Nor do they need to get texts from friends and family on their work phone.
But everyone needs money. And everyone needs bathroom breaks.
For me, it’s about reasonable vs unreasonable.
I think it would be odd if an employer actually banned bank web sites. But it would also be odd if an employee didn’t want their computer logged in the off chance they checked their bank balance. Or wanted the employer to buy some method of not storing personal data while storing business data.
I mean, my employer is regulated and must store all documents, email, and web traffic I send or receive. I wouldn’t expect them to try to distinguish what’s personal and not store it. Is that even possible?
