fuck this job.com

If you have a rival, send steamy emails from an offwork site email account. The boss will read them and maybe give your rival a hard time. It would help if you could get on their computer and respond to the steamy email.

I will never work for a family run business either. Did it twice out of necessity. Family run businesses are only good to use as a stepping stone. Never stay there longer than 1 year at a maximum.

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The force shall free me." - The Sith Code

I always assume Big Brother is watching, email, phone calls, everything. I assume this, so that I can protect myself in the unlikely event that I do step over the line, either knowingly or not. How pathetic is that? But there it is.

There is a pesky little thing called Human Rights though. It kind of gets in the way in cases of unwarranted, extreme monitoring, unless you work for the CIA or FBI. Or are a key witness in a major trial.

The old argument goes...if you have nothing to hide, you won't take exception to the fact that you are being monitored excessively and unfairly. The other argument goes, that companies, private owners and other parties who do this are the ones that are out to freaking lunch. Nut bars. Borderlines. Probably not the people you want to be working for.

Sometimes it is strictly a power thing. They do it because they can and no one challenges it (or is fired) or they are truly deviant and get off on it.

Ah, FOB, the three words that SHOULD make you run for the hills. My family has one, and I have refused on numerous occassions offers to work there.

And all family members are on good terms with me, but not with each other. Go figure.

Get proof of over monitoring, then take him to court. Simple as that.

"Take everything professionally and nothing personally."
- Me

About monitoring and what is acceptable and what is not? I know this will vary widely from country to country or even state to state. But I believe there are guidelines or laws of some sort.

For example, whenever you are on hold for any company that monitors calls, there is that patented message "this call may be monitored for quality control" blah blah blah. But you know where I am going with this. What are the actual laws about monitoring? For phone, email, etc.

I know this is a tricky topic for USA these days what with Big Brother AKA Homeland Security, who, from what I can tell can now do everything but raid your panty drawer on a whim. So I feel sorry for USA right now with their rights being eroded out from under them using fear as an excuse to do what the government (and all governments) have been trying to do all along.

But really, there are laws, no matter where you live and I'm sure they can be accessed. It would be interesting to know.

Sorry to have to tell you this, but the courts have ruled that employees have no expectation of privacy when using company communications or devices. In other words, the internet, phones, computers, etc. all belong to the company and they have the right to monitor their usage pretty much any way they want.

Same goes for video "survellance", etc...

Do not use company equipment, internet connections, etc. for anything you don't want them to see.

Always expect that anything you type, say, etc. is public knowledge.

Anything you want to do that should be private should be done on a personal laptop using a connection owned and controlled by you. Anything less is open to your employers.