Re: Employer Probing Precedents?

[m5@dev.tivoli.com (Mike McNally)]

Scott Brickner writes:
 > The notion that, simply because you're wearing a uniform owned by your
 > employer, you're subject to physical search at the employer's
 > discretion is laughable.  The difference between this and searching the
 > computer on one's desk differ only in degree, IMO.

Another vaguely-related concept is that of tenants' rights to a degree
of security in rental property.

My employer owns the workstation in front of me, but in exchange for
supplying them with software and ideas (when I'm not busy sending
e-mail to mailing lists ;-) they've "given" it to me to use in that
pursuit.  They could of course insist that I pay for it, like the old
company store model that railroad workers dealt with.  In a sense I
do pay for it, under the idea that the company would be able to pay me
more if not for the expense of the tools I need for the job.

Though the ownership==control equation works sometimes, and is
appealing to reason, I don't think things are always so simple.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Nobody's going to listen to you if you just | Mike McNally (m5@tivoli.com) |
| stand there and flap your arms like a fish. | Tivoli Systems, Austin TX    |
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