This may be one of the standards to evaluate employees' performance: Can employees use the work time to check personal emails?

It seems the answer would be flat no. However, to extend it further, a better question to ask can be: Is it possible for employees spilt work from their personal life?

If checking personal emails have tangible evidence that empolyees are not working, how about intangible ones such as "use company time to think about their personal things?" Is there any way to actually track if an employee's time at work is 100% contributed to work-related things? Or, is it necessary?

Some companies, like google, allows employees to bring their pet to work. Some researches also show bying bring employees' kids to work place actually improve their performance, as employees tend to set up "role models" for kids. After all, family is a great motivation for many people to do a better job at work.

I'd like to hear your opinions on what "ethical" behaviors mean to you and/or your employees.

This is a good question.

Before I offer an opionion, let me say that I am assuming a private sector environment. Public sector organizations have, sometimes, legal definitions of what's allowed.

That said, the use of email question seems to be a question of what the company policy is. If the policy is "it is ok to read your personal email at work", well, then, there seems to be little question. The contrary is also true. If, however, the company has no policy, then one could argue that anyone could take it anyway one wishes. In that case, the prudent employee probably should assume that it is inappropriate.

You ask whether reading personal email is evidence that an employee is not working. Well, that depends on whether the employer has a policy on breaks, etc. -- personal time at work. I once worked at a job where it was not an issue; if you got your work done, well and on time, no problem.

I also once worked at a defence contractor where one had to do things like read email on one's own time. Lunch was fine. Work time was billed to contracts so if you spent half an hour on personal stuff during the day, you worked half an hour late to get in your 8 hours of billable time (or you took a shorter lunch or came in early or whatever).

As you sort of allude to in your comments about google, pets and children, the employer generally needs to decide what to allow. I once did some consulting work for a company where employees were encouraged to meet in the hot tub, go work out (in the company gym) if the environment got too stressful and so forth. The emphasis was on teams getting their tasks done on time, on budget and meeting quality standards.

Just my USD0.02

Thanks for your reply, John!

Yes, I was referring to a private sector environment. You mentioned company policies vary. I guess as an employee, policy is a good document to check. As an employer, having a reasonable policy is also important.

I definitely agree with you that as long as the quality work is done on time and budget, it should be O.K. whether employees spend their time on other things or not. However, this is not always the case. I recently read an article saying that in reality, many productive and efficient employees are often rewarded with “more” work, and therefore reduces the morale.

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Originally posted by MapleIN:
I guess as an employee, policy is a good document to check. As an employer, having a reasonable policy is also important.

Depending on the country and industry and whether or not you are a public company, a written policy may be a requirement...

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quote:

I recently read an article saying that in reality, many productive and efficient employees are often rewarded with “more” work, and therefore reduces the morale.

But this is a problem with management (or rather mis-managament). But, some people never learn

Also consider those who telecommute. They do not receive constant supervision. The general feeling is that most are very productive, some much more than if they were at work. Maybe lack of "being watched" is a good thing...