[ohjesusthatguy]

>It's unreasonable to expect all private communications to be on public record, and if you write a note to your babysitter during office hours, why should the wider world have to know about it?

>It's a difficult balance.

No it's not, and you know it. If you're discussing job-related matters, use your work email, not the system you had set up so that you could evade your workplace data-retention policies. Who knows; maybe Clinton and Blumenthal send all their "re: re: re: funny" cat pictures to each other through this, but I doubt it.

Any maybe your parents never taught you, but just because other people break the rules doesn't give you an excuse to break the rules. If only our politicians had any sense of right and wrong...

[freehunter]

In any other workplace, this would be called data leakage. This is why many companies use web filtering software to block other email providers.

[jrs235]

Which is why employees should not use corporate resources (equipment, networks, time) to conduct personal business/affairs.

[freehunter]

It's true. Some companies disallow it altogether. Everywhere else, it's just a bad idea (he says, typing this comment on his work laptop).

However, the answer is not to bring your personal equipment onto the corporate network. Which sucks because if you need to get something taken care of between 8 and 5, how are you going to manage that? Your options are limited if you don't have a guest network at work.

[jrs235]

Yup. (As I type this on my work computer too). It sucks. The limited options are go someplace over lunch to get it done, take PTO if your employer is inflexible, or find a new employer.

Your personal, private, and confidential dealings while using employer provided equipment, networks, and time are anything but those things.