Blurring the Borders
By Jeff Merron
Today's new technologies have enabled employees to bring work home. But they have also made it easier for people to bring their personal life to work. While most organizations understand the need for flexibility, they are also well aware that increased access can cut both ways.
Pedro Forment, a lawyer working out of Ford & Harrison's Miami office, has seen plenty of employee misconduct during his career. The shenanigans of upper management at one of his clients, a California IT company, could have supplied a soap opera scribe with a year's worth of plotlines. "One guy was soliciting prostitutes," says Forment. "There were all these e-mails when he would go on business trips saying, 'What services will I get for 190 roses?' 'Roses' was a euphemism for dollars."
More seriously, the same connections and technologies that enable employees to pay their bills, blog, shop, surf the Web and e-mail during work hours also enable employers to ask workers to do more work at home or on the road. Most of the time, that pen drive will hold information and documents needed to do legitimate work away from the office, the cell phone will enable employers to easily contact employees and the Internet virtually replicates workplace resources at home or on a laptop. But when employees routinely take work home, they may be carrying reams of confidential, crucial and valuable information that can inadvertently be accessed by people all over the world.
How can employers manage the proper use of technology? (article continues)
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