Adapted from the article by Meg Langland in the March 2009 NACE Journal
If you’re accustomed to using texting and checking Facebook during class and you’re about to enter the world of work, you should be aware of workplace policies regarding personal use of the Internet and electronic devices.
For you, this means instead of being able to spend as much time as you want checking your Facebook or MySpace account, or responding to every text or e-mail message when it appears on your screen or phone, you are faced with rules and policies curtailing their use.
Security of company information, often a huge concern to employers, is a concept that may seem foreign to you if you’re are accustomed to swapping flash drives, sharing passwords with close friends, and leaving your computer screen unlocked for long periods of time. Unfortunately, you may not discover that you have violated an organization’s security or “general use” rules governing electronic devices until after you’ve logged on to an unauthorized site, left a company laptop unsecured, or downloaded forbidden programs.
Other potential landmines you have to navigate are the expectations of communication within your new work environment; i.e. is it okay to send a message with wallpaper or border; address your boss in an e-mail as “Hey Jessica”; or forward a mass e-mail or YouTube video to a few co-workers?
Using E-mail at Work
For many new to corporate employment, the fact that your online activity may be scrutinized by sophisticated software programs is often a rude awakening: unacceptable behavior can result in termination. One college student interning at a branch of an investment firm in a small town was called by the company’s corporate office more than a hundred miles away and reprimanded for logging on to his college e-mail account an hour earlier. Another example of this occurred when a nuclear plant on the West Coast terminated a newly hired engineer after he had already received one warning for using his work e-mail account to run a part-time business during working hours.
Further highlighting Generation Y’s reliance on electronic devices is the frequent use of MP3 players, personal cell phones, and text messaging as a means of social communication. You, as a new employee, may not realize that when the boss texts during a meeting it usually is for business purposes and that many of his cell phone calls are work-related.
And, these issues are global: Management in a law firm in the United Kingdom said the use of MP3 players created an environment where staff members were not communicating with each other. Senior management felt the use of MP3 players would “have a negative impact on the business.” However, it is possible that the younger employees felt that listening to music was a way they could inject work-life balance into their workday and bring more enjoyment to their jobs.
Corporate Culture Includes Technology
Work environments vary greatly according to industry, company culture, and the nature of the job itself. Organizations define their own expectations of professionalism as pertaining to the use of technical or electronic devices in the workplace and then formalize policies that govern such hot issues as information security and personal use of electronic devices on the job.
Often, you’ll be notified during training within the hiring organization, either with an assigned mentor who shares information and models acceptable behavior, or through a formal training program. Some programs use online and/or corporate trainers who instruct new hires on company policy and expose them to an environment where they learn other unwritten rules governing office behavior.
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