Thanks for commenting. I entirely agree. Companies need some soft of policy, of course, but the policy shouldn’t be “don’t do it!”

That said, employees need to be smart in their usage and understand the limits. In this case the Herald made a big deal out of nothing, though it does make for some interesting discussions.

We’ve had telephones in offices for years. People know not to use the company phone for political campaigning, running a personal business, or excessive personal phone calls. But every employer allows modest and discrete personal use of the company phone.

Email access from work has basically become the same as the telephone in many company’s written policies. Fine to do it for personal use, just limited, during breaks, after hours, not for profit or politicking, etc.

Facebook and twitter access should be viewed the same way. A little personal use here and there, no problem.

I’ve scanned through Derjue’s usage, and it doesn’t seem to violate these simple ideas. The Herald is way off-base in their insinuations, since her usage of these electronic media for personal purposes is quite minor.