Conference 7.286::digital

    Jeffrey,
    	    the only job I know of where such a situation exists
    is selling advertising for newspapers. Tele-ad people phoning
    round local firms/companies looking for business. 
    	    I presume you are not selling advertising and I cannot
    think of any occaison where a boss should have the ability or
    right to listen in on his/her employees phone conversations.
    Frankly I am aghast at this. If it happened to me I would be
    looking for another way for my manager to measure my performance
    and if that failed I'd be looking for another job (prefereably
    within DEC).
    
    Good Luck,
    	      Don H.
    

    re .0 Make your personal calls on a different phone

    800-DIGITAL reports that the phone calls may be monitored for
    ``supervisory training purposes''. The message indicates that calls are
    not recorded. Dunno if the operators know which calls are monitored. (I
    supposed I should ask 'em.)

        I would imagine the topic author works for DECdirect, although it
        could be for any of a number of organizations. 
        
        This is related to the topic on "personal use of company phones",
        and the answer suggested in an earlier reply (make your personal
        calls from another phone, on your breaks) addresses the problem
        completely.  Another alternative is to seek a job in another
        function where you would not be using the phone in the same way,
        and where the group has different practices regarding monitoring
        phone use. 
        
        I strongly suspect that there is no corporate policy that says
        that your manager can't listen in on calls made using Digital's
        telephone system, if there is a business justification for
        doing so.  After all, the phones are there for business use,
        not for personal convenience.
        
        Tom

>        I strongly suspect that there is no corporate policy that says
>        that your manager can't listen in on calls made using Digital's
>        telephone system, if there is a business justification for
>        doing so.

But there better be a good business reason.  Unless you're in a job where the
way you deal with people over the phone is a major part of your evaluation, you
should not expect anyone to be listening in on your calls.

/john

    We live in a country - and in a company - which respects the privacy
    of the individual. This is especially true of phone conversations,
    regardless of whether they are business or personal.
    
    In law enforcement, wire taps cannot legally be put in place without
    a court order. Further, one *supposedly* cannot obtain a court order
    without probable cause. This is to protect the individual against
    unwarranted invasion of privacy, consistent with our constitutional 
    rights.
    
    A similar standard should exist for monitoring of phone conversations.
    There should be a legitimate, documented business reason for monitoring
    phone conversations. Except under circumstances where *probable
    cause* type issues are involved, employees should be informed that
    their phone conversations may be subject to monitoring.
    
    Monitoring of phone conversations *can* have a legitimate business
    purpose. At DecDirect, for example, it may be ensure that customer
    calls are being handled courteously.
    
    But such monitoring *could* be abused and should not be considered
    to be the "right" of management to do at their whim. If policies
    and procedures do not cover this area, perhaps they *should* address
    it in order to preserve legitimate monitoring but protect employees
    from abusive monitoring by supervisors...
    
    

    Yes .0 is gone. I assume that the author deleted it. Someone may
    have pointed out that their management could see it if they use
    notes. Hard to say.
    
    			Alfred

If their management is of a mindset to use telephone conversations
against them, they are probably inclined to use Notes conversations
against them as well.

(Sigh!)

        Of course, there is a subtle difference between telephones and
        Notes -- with telephones, unless the conversation is recorded,
        it's difficult to *prove* what was said.  With Notes (and MAIL),
        there's a generally trusted "written record" (although there
        are ways to "counterfeit" either, they are not trivially easy).
        
        We don't even know that their management was of a mindset to use
        telephone conversations against them -- at least, I don't recall
        an assertion to that effect in the (now deleted) topic note.
        Rather, their management notified them that management might
        happen to listen in on *any* telephone conversation, and that
        there was no assurance that a *personal* conversation would not be
        overheard.  That's pretty "up front", in my opinion.
        
        Tom
        
        Tom