QUICK TIPS: PROTECT YOUR CONFIDENTIAL/SENSITIVE INFORMATION

Tip #1: If you must access personal or sensitive information at work, use a diskette or download a file from your Internet account. This is especially important if you are having issues at work and you are tracking information that supports your grievance against your supervisor, a coworker or your company, as a whole. Your supervisors and employers will be very interested in whether or not you can prove your case. Your coworkers or IT staff may be assigned to keep track of the documents on your computer and they may be asked to spy on you by pillaging through your office for any information that can show what you are up to.

When a coworker was suffering from racially-based retaliation, her office was routinely checked by one of her subordinates (who admitted to the behavior) and I noticed that items in my office (I was a key witness) had been moved around. My mouse would be in a different position, my chair was moved around, and papers on my desk had obviously been moved around.

Tip #2: If you are collecting information that supports your grievance/complaint about racial disparities (e.g., unequal pay among Black and White workers), racially based harassment, etc., keep your files out of the office. If you print or make a copy of a document that supports your claim, take the file home. Do not keep your grievance related files on the job.

If you absolutely have to access sensitive files at work, be sure to virus check your files before opening them. And remember, many companies now use tracking software. The software you access, Internet sites you view, and even the number of key strokes you make each day may be recorded by your company’s information technology team.