Is your boss allowed to check your work chat?
In the media image: Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
Sharing a joke with a colleague in your work chat might seem harmless, but just how private is it? Gerrit-Jan Zwenne, Professor of Law and the Information Society, spoke to Quote about privacy at work: 'Employers can’t stop all private communication.'
We all have some colleagues that we get on really well with. Then you might use the work chat to talk about things that have nothing to do with work. Some managers have a problem with that, but do they actually have the right to check your chat? ‘Whether your boss is allowed to do so depends to a large extent on the situation’, explains Gerrit-Jan Zwenne. 'For instance, sometimes it’s important to monitor the quality of someone’s work.’ In some employment sectors, it can be useful for a manager to read through the work chat – to offer tips, check shared information, or help with language improvements. Particularly in jobs that require a lot of customer contact, like customer services, this can be important.
That said, your manager is not simply allowed to go through your entire chat history: 'As an employer, you’re not allowed to violate the privacy of your employees without good reason,' says Zwenne. 'But if there are complaints about an unsafe work environment, discrimination or sexism, it’s also the employer's statutory responsibility to solve these problems.' The professor emphasises that a careful balance must always be made between privacy and control: 'Employers can’t stop all private communication. That would create an unpleasant atmosphere at work. In a typical office job, you also chat occasionally by the coffee machine.'
More information?
Read the full article in Quest (in Dutch)