Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Instant Messaging at Work may be Monitored!

If you like to IM while working, a lot of employers are starting to log your messages. What you have to understand is that anything you do on your company computer at work is the property of your employer. They want to log your IM’s is for a variety of reasons. Employers are interested in knowing if employees are giving away trade secrets, harassing co-workers or violating non-compete agreements to name a few. Please visit this article to learn more.

My thoughts on this are simple. Employers hire you to do a very specific job. If you have IM access, it can be a great tool in conjunction with your job. The issue to me isn’t some of the bad things you can do with IM’s to hurt your company’s image and profitability (my personal philosophy has always been if you have these tendencies in you, nothing will stop you). For me, it is simply one more distraction or gateway to have to the outside world that takes away 100% commitment to your position. Talking to your college friends all day may be fun, but will never get you ahead in the real world. Successful professionals never have time to just chat!

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