Most employees begin new jobs by acknowledging receipt and understanding of the employer’s policies. Frequently, such policies state that employees have no right to privacy or ownership over the contents placed on company-owned computers.
Yet many employees save personal items on company computers, like photographs, music, soccer schedules, confirmation pages for on-line bill payments or e-mail addresses for family members and friends. When an employee is fired or laid off years later, the employee may be shocked to discover that the company has blocked the employee’s access to the company-owned computer and that the employee has no way to recover personal data.
Dallas employment lawyer Keith Clouse advises employees to follow company policies and, in most cases, to avoid conducting personal business on a company-owned computer and to refrain from saving any personal data on a company-owned computer. If an employee must conduct personal business on a company-owned computer, the employee should use an external drive (if allowed by the company) to save personal data so that no such data remains on the company’s computer.
To speak to Mr. Clouse or to another Dallas labor and employment lawyer, contact the employment law firm of Clouse Dunn LLP at [email protected].
