Employees Still Send Over 100 Personal Messages At Work Despite Court Ruling

Yes, your employer is allowed to see them...
Kelvin Murray via Getty Images

Employees still send huge quantities of personal messages during work hours despite a recent European Court ruling which saw one employee fired for using Yahoo Messenger.

According to a survey carried out by Dice, an online career site, more than two thirds of us in the UK happily admit to regularly sending private emails, WhatsApps and more during work hours.

40 per cent of those asked even admitted to looking for a new job while over a quarter said they had gone shopping.

What's perhaps more worrying isn't the online shopping sprees we're all going on but that 42 per cent of those asked weren't aware that their bosses could be entitled to see those messages.

Of course you're perfectly entitled to your privacy when it comes to your personal device.

AOL

However, if your work's company policy strictly bans personal use on work equipment then that's when things get sticky.

You see the gentlemen in question who was fired was found to be using a work-based chat service (so a chat that was attached to the company's email account) and had subsequently been using it to talk to friends and family.

As Jamie Bowler from Dice points out though, it can all vary wildly depending on where you work.

“Rules vary from workplace to workplace, so it’s always best to adhere to company policies, rather than ignore them and suffer the consequences."

So there you have it folks. If you're a big Slack user, or perhaps you just like sending endless gifs (who doesn't) on Gchat then perhaps you might want to double check your contract.

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