Up until a few week ago it was my custom to hand off all the morning mail to Boss' Assistant who works on the floor where most of the mail ends up delivered...
That is, up until Boss received an envelope which had already been opened by one of Boss' Progeny to whom it had been accidentally addressed. Boss immediately called me to ask why I'd opened the mail.
I explained that I had nothing to do with the mail, I only give it to the Assistant who carries it upstairs. Later that day the Assistant came over to thank me for passing the buck, and informed me that from now on I could bloody well deal with the mail myself.
I'm told that yesterday Boss had a mysterious yelling fit behind closed doors (such fits henceforth to be known as Yellapaloozas) and now the mail policy has reversed.
Contrary to the former orders which specifically forbade Assistant from opening the mail, Assistant is now obliged to open all the mail and date-stamp it as received. (Assistant has sworn to begin keeping a mail tracking log, so as not be be accused of having lost mail that was never delivered.)
The new rules seem inexplicably perverse when one considers Boss' drive to control things; and the control of information, in particular, has a very high priority. For example, staff members of certain departments are forbidden to speak with those in certain other departments, even socially outside work (and before you say that's an unenforceable edict, you should know that Assistant has found documentation that Boss has paid private eyes to follow up on certain employees and to collect their personal data).
So, allowing someone access to all mail, even if only to stamp it, seems... well, inexplicably perverse!
***amendment*** March 3rd, 2003
Assistant tells me today that it is only the mail that goes to Accounting Dep't (i.e., only cheques & bills, not all the mail) that is to be opened & date-stamped. So it's not a total reversal of the mail policy, as the Assistant still is keeping well away from Boss' mail. But, still... to allow someone a glimpse into the company finances...
...I can't tell you how difficult it was for our computer guru, at Boss' command, to tweak our accounting program so that the shipping department can't access invoice information for the orders they package. (Normally, it is the shipping dep't who generates the invoice as soon as something is shipped, so the client is not billed for something that never sent. Now, we invoice the client right away, whether their order ships or not! Am I right in thinking this is not a normal accounting procedure?) I suppose the idea was to prevent them from knowing the precise value of what they handle... but for heaven's sake, it's all valuable, and everybody knows that...
Posted by edgar at February 28, 2003 04:58 PMI didn't think that was legal.. the looking into peopel lives that is. Could someone please provide a straight jacket! Yoiks!
Posted by: munin at March 1, 2003 10:47 AMTo be fair, some companies have argued that it is not just their prerogative but their obligation to perform thorough background checks on their employees, especially where the company may be held accountable for employee behaviour. Nevertheless I fail to appreciate how knowing the amount of an employee's mortgage payments affects company liability. So I don't believe it's strictly illegal... but still it's hardly fair. I wonder how it would be perceived if an individual employee, or an Employee's Union, had the Boss investigated?
Posted by: edgar mousehat at March 1, 2003 12:24 PM