Should I stop posting from work?
 

Just got this internal work email. It was sent to everyone, not just me.

A little bit of backstory that you may already know: In the past they have never hassled people for this, even though it has always been the rule. Even my technophobe boss can be seen reading gossip columns online. Things get very slow at the branches.

The city has closed down the big library and there are lots of us crammed into the two tiny branches with nothing to do. Just this week they've told the part-timers that they have to cut their hours for a while, because there's nothing to do. (Happily, I'm exempt from that.) They also apparently came down on a coworker of mine that loves to tell long loud stories in the back office and laughs way too loudly. All of this is audible to patrons, making us look bad.

My current worry is that the really are cracking down on things like this because patrons may notice, and as usual, it's their tax dollars paying us. They are extra worried about public opinion due to the closure of the main library.

Having said that, I'll reiterate that everyone here uses the net for fun. No one has said anything in person, and the person who sent this is an administrative/secretarial type who doesn't work at this location. If I just keep it to times when I'm sitting on desk with nothing to do, I think I'll be ok.

What do you guys think? Especially those of you who've done managerial jobs before, what do you think of the tone of this email?

It sounds rather boilerplateish to me. I'd continue to read/post, but just be careful. Observe the habits of your cow-orkers and superiors. If you sense their behavior changing, you might want to cut back—at least temporarily.

I'd say as long as your immediate superiors don't seem to have a problem with it and/or aren't making an extra effort to detect "violations" of the policy, it's unlikely to be an issue.

reading that email, I see this: Look busy so the patrons think the money is going to good use. I can understand not using the system email to send out personal mail, but for a staff member like me who didn't get a work address, it's a pain to NOT use my professional gmail name for business purposes.

A lot of the decisions made for our system are made by people who have not set a foot in a branch for many, many years. Likewise, the policies they make are not practical for anything except causing many trees to die as the memos get sent along.

In my case, a lot of my info on DL comes from this site. I'm able to pass it along to patrons and (just recently) my boss who needed vacation planning info. So, really.....LoT is loosely work related. :snap:

I agree, there is a tendency to be slow at the branch. For me, I just look busy (reading the boards) and typing (just as I am now responding to the post)... but that's not to say that I don't see other staff members looking at things that interest them when there are no patrons to assist. I find that by looking at Internet Movie Database, I hone my skill as the "Movie Girl" or by looking at Disney things, I also expand my knowledge as the "Disney Expert (heh)" in the system.

If using the internet interferes with the job, then the Branch Head (or manager) would have to deal with the unproductive person/s.
As for the storyteller, if you are on friendly terms with the person, I would talk to them about storytelling away from the patrons, like maybe before or after work. If the story has to be told, again, ask them to be more discreet.

It sounds like you have a make a personal choice based on risk. If you have a manager who is under pressure or is they type of manager who puts pressure on the employees, I would not risk it. It could be grounds for diciplinary action. But, many companies reiterate their policies on occasions so if they "need to enforce the policy" they have done their side of the deal by notifying the employee.

Since you are on their dime while there and on their equipment, they have every right enforce the non-personal use policy. That being said, I agree with Lisa, what risk are you willing to take? If you decide to continue using it for personal use after receiving the email, then it is for you to be accountable for any disciplinary action taken against you, including termination. Now you are a volounteer to any dicipline, not a victim of misunderstanding or corporate red tape. Even if your immediate supervisors say it's ok, but the policy comes from higher up, the ultimate responsibility comes to you. (I know this from 15 years at a big corporation)

While I may not always agree with the policy, there is a reason for it.

If it were me, I would minimize the risk and not do it. If they were paying you to surf the web, they would have put it in your job description ;)

I think they DO pay me to surf the web.

Is there any sort of system software monitoring activity on you network at the library? It is possible that they will be tracking usage, especially if it has been slow and they may have need to let some employees go.

Risk/benefit analysis.....

In my system, there are none. There are too many lower staff members that weren't given official library addresses. Our library system has a filter of sorts that blocks for porn, but that's it.

Count me in the conservative, cautionary group: lay off the work surfing habits if you value your job. Better to be safe than sorry. While it could just be the typical corporate CYA, it could also be the ground-work for staff reductions. Ease off for a while and see what shakes out.

Watch out for cow-orkers!