After years working on cases related to computer use in the workplace, WEAC Legal Counsel Jina Jonen has one basic piece of advice for members: Assume that your employer will view everything that you write, read or even just look at on your school or work computer.

“WEAC negotiations specialist Greg Spring and I conduct trainings throughout the state, and people repeatedly tell us they had no idea that their employers could monitor their computer activities,” she said.

They can and they do.

Remember, computers and computer systems at school and other workplaces belong to the employer. Most school districts have Internet and e-mail usage policies. Many have computer monitoring devices working in the background and can use them to observe the computer habits of employees.

“The safest thing to assume is that the district knows exactly what you are doing on the computer because if they don’t have monitoring software now the odds are they will soon,” Jonen said.

Spring added, “Studies show that every year more employers monitor their employees’ computer use. With the technology becoming increasingly user-friendly and inexpensive, we expect this trend to continue.”

What’s the best way to protect yourself from being subjected to disciplinary action for misusing the computer? “My main recommendations for all our members – teachers and education support professionals – is to read the policy and follow it,” Jonen said.

Some districts allow limited personal use of district computers, and some are more restrictive. But even if your districts allows personal use, you have to always use good judgment.

That means you shouldn’t conduct personal business on district computers during work time or visit sites that would be deemed inappropriate. “Don’t go anywhere on the Internet you don’t want the public to know you are going,” Jonen said. Nor should you use the school
e-mail system to vent to a friend about your supervisor.

But even beyond those fairly obvious restrictions, you have to think twice even about what you may consider harmless personal or business
e-mails.

Jonen currently is working on a case involving personal e-mails sent by teachers to relatives and friends. The teachers did not violate the district’s computer use rules, but a citizen seemingly with a personal grudge has asked to see all the e-mails that the teachers sent through district computers.

Wisconsin courts have not yet decided whether such e-mails constitute public records, and WEAC is arguing that they are not. But if the case goes against the employees, the content of those personal e-mails could end up in the newspaper.

Many school district employees don’t even think about consequences such as that when they are writing an e-mail or visiting a Web site. They figure they are good employees and the district would have no reason to investigate them or bring a disciplinary charge against them. However, issues can come up unexpectedly and when they do the district can go back into computer archives and dig out records of the employee’s computer use from years past. In addition to the content of e-mails sent and received, that includes which Web sites they visited, how long they spent on those sites, and the exact hours they were on the computer. If the employee was on the computer when he or she should have been doing something else, the district has a record of it.

“They can go back and build a case against you,” Jonen said. “We are seeing more and more cases like this.”

As for e-mail, it’s best to play it safe. You think you double-deleted that potentially embarrassing e-mail three years ago? Well, maybe not before the district’s computer monitoring software made an electronic copy and archived it.

Don’t write anything in an e-mail you wouldn’t feel comfortable seeing printed on the front page of the local newspaper.

Which brings us to one of Jonen’s primary pieces of advice: Don’t write anything in an e-mail you wouldn’t feel comfortable seeing printed on the front page of the local newspaper.

Computer use precautions extend outside of the school district too, involving for example your personal MySpace page. Of course, it’s a free country and you have a right to express yourself from your home computer. But even in that case, there are common sense guidelines. Jonen said teachers are held to a higher standard as “role models.” Basically, it means if you behave inappropriately away from school in a way that can affect your “role model” status at school, you may be subject to potential disciplinary review.

Of course, you are free to express your opinion on world affairs in your personal blog (operated from home). But recent court cases have limited public employees’ rights to comment on work-related (i.e. school-related) matters. As a result, public employees may face legal trouble if an employer claims comments are abusive or disruptive to the government institution, such as a school.

Jonen said she does not want to scare teachers or education support professionals from voicing their opinions, but to follow policies and use common sense. Just remember that your behaviors on the computer – at home and at school – can become public.

“Unfortunately, the law provides employees with few privacy rights in the workplace,” she said.

Posted September 6, 2007