Your employer does not have to allow you to use the phone, email or the web for personal reasons. However, good employers trust staff with some private use of the phone, internet and email as long as this does not interfere with their work. If your employer is going to monitor your email and Web use, you should be clearly informed of this and of the reasons for such monitoring.
Many employers use automated systems to identify unacceptable Web usage, flagging up access to websites which are either on a ‘banned’ list, or judged by an automatic system to be a risk. Make sure you've read and understood your employer's policy on email and Web use. Your workplace union rep, if you have one, may be able to explain the employer’s policy to you.
If your employer doesn't have a policy yet, always assume the worst. Act cautiously, and ask your manager to clarify what personal use of email or the Web they will permit you. Remember that no email (not even a Web based e-mail service such as Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail) is ever totally secure. The only way to guarantee you are safely using email or the Web at work for personal purposes is to know that you are doing it within your rights for that workplace.
