Visual Art Resources ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
: As the Director of a very small art organization I often deal with these
: issues in 'real time' not just theory. Every once in a while I need to
: access some information on one of the computers used by my staff. In doing
: so I have found folders and files that contain information not related to
: the organization. I assume them to be personal documents of the staff
: member in question. I do not know this for sure because I do not open them
: although as Director I have the right to do so.

But do you? If you walked into an employee's office to look for something
you needed and opened a desk drawer and saw a purse there, would you have
the right to go through it? Would you have the right to look through
personal hand written diaries just because they were stored in a
museum owned bookshelf? How is this different from looking in a computer
and seeing a file labled "personal"

We all keep personal things at the office and our employer does not have
the right to go through them. it doesn't matter if those personal items
are sitting on our desk or in a file on our computer.

: As a manager, the decisions I make in situations such as this are very
: important. My actions set the tone of the working environment. I believe
: employees who are 'trying to get away with something' are responding to
: the 'strangle-hold' school of management. My employees are encouraged to
: use our computers, frame-shop, dark room, and wood shop on their own time.
: The more trust I invest in my employees the more trustworthy they become.
: The more respect, appreciation and encouragement I offer them the more I
: and my organization receive.

Good for you! This goes a long way toward building a sense of family in
the workplace and a sense of community in the profession. I feel that if
employees are using work equipment on their own time and at their own
expense, they are only beniffitting the museum by sharpening their
usual workplace skills. Besides, I have often been in the museum on
weekends working on my own projects and have had to deal with emergency
work situations which have cropped up while I was "unofficially" there.

BTW, I manage the museum's website, a skill I learned by first
experimenting on my own personal site.

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