InterWorks provides a wide variety of communication tools and resources to employees for use in running day-to-day business activities. Whether a telephone, videoconference, Internet access, intranet, email, text messaging, portable electronic devices or any other company-provided technology, all should be handled in a professional and respectful manner.
As these tools are InterWorks’ property and meant for our work efforts, you should not have any expectation of privacy in using your company computer, phone, portable electronic devices or other communication tools. All communications made using company-provided equipment or services, including email, Slack messages (including “private” channels) and Internet activity, are subject to inspection by the company. Employees should keep in mind that even if they delete an email, a Slack message or another communication, a copy may be archived on the company’s systems.
While it seems obvious, the personal use of these communications tools (e.g., email, phone, Internet) has the potential to drain productivity and system performance. You should also be aware that information transmitted through email and the Internet is not completely secure or may contain viruses or malware, and information you transmit and receive could damage the company’s systems, as well as the reputation and/or competitiveness of our company.
Generally speaking, we encourage you to use these tools only to communicate with fellow employees, suppliers, customers or potential customers regarding company business. Internal and external emails are considered business records and may be subject to federal and state recordkeeping requirements, as well as to discovery in the event of litigation. Keep this in mind when sending emails within and outside the company.
Snappy title for this section, right? Just remember that all use of company-provided communications systems should also conform to any guidelines/policies, including but not limited to Equal Opportunity, Harassment, Confidential Information and Conflicts of Interest.
For example, you should not engage in harassing or discriminatory behavior that targets others because of their protected class status or make defamatory comments. In similar fashion, do not divulge confidential information such as trade secrets, client lists or information restricted from disclosure by law on social media sites.
Because email, telephone and Internet communication equipment are provided for company business purposes and are critical to the company’s success, your communications may be accessed without further notice by IT department administrators and company management to ensure compliance with this guideline.
Electronic communication systems are not inherently secure and may allow inadvertent disclosure, accidental transmission to third parties, etc. Sensitive information should not be sent via unsecured electronic means.
As part of our security measures and to help ensure a safe workplace, we have positioned video cameras to monitor various areas of our facilities. Video cameras will not be used in private areas, such as break rooms, restrooms, dressing rooms, etc.
Probably not a surprise to anyone, but sending, receiving or accessing pornographic materials on our equipment or networks is strictly prohibited.
Please pay particular care to the use and security of any portable electronic devices, whether provided by us or they are your own. Lost or stolen devices containing company information may cause breaches of security that result in the loss of company confidential commercial data, the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive client or employee data, lawsuits against the individual and lawsuits against the company. As you might expect, we do not want to make the news like this.
Always use appropriate password protections for such devices and physically secure them as recommended or required by our Support team.
Maintaining the reliability and security of our internal systems is paramount for our ability to serve clients. It is crucial that you exercise the highest degree of care in using and protecting your equipment, passwords and data. Our Support team helps make sure we are maintaining necessary standards for our equipment and networks. Please work with Support if you have any questions about proper usage, security or other issues. While most people here are highly capable with technical issues, it’s important to always check with Support for any hardware or software issue to ensure company-wide processes and records are being maintained.
For help with any technical issues, you can email our Support@ team. If you feel like your question could help others, post it in #iw-support Slack channel.
We have to be very careful about the way we store and transmit our clients’ internal files and data. With a team as spread out and collaborative as ours, cloud-based storage and sharing services can be very useful (and necessary!), but they also present a number of security risks. It is imperative that employees NOT open or use any other cloud services accounts for the storage, manipulation or exchange of company-related communications or company-owned data without the approval of our Support team.
To protect the integrity and confidentiality of our data, our clients’ data and the security of our corporate network, we’ve adopted a set of policies to ensure you have the functionality and access you need to be able to do your job. Remember, this policy applies to everyone at InterWorks and all cloud-based services used by us:
If you are not sure whether these procedures apply to a given service, please contact Support at Support@interworks.com.
At this point, you’ve probably used an AI tool within your work. Whether drafting written products or troubleshooting code, AI can be incredibly useful for the work that we do here. However, with AI’s impressive abilities come some new and unexpected legal concerns. To ensure that we use our new superpowers responsibly, please keep the following principles in mind.
We’re committed to making sure you have the necessary equipment available to you to do your job here at InterWorks. Please treat the equipment you’re issued with care (like it has feelings, you know), and follow the operating instructions, maintenance requirements and safety guidelines.
We understand that accidents do happen, and equipment is damaged, lost or stolen. Here’s how we handle those unfortunate situations:
You should always notify Support IMMEDIATELY if your phone, laptop or any other equipment is lost or stolen, no matter what. We need to take action to protect any data that may be compromised in these situations. Our team will set to work on your challenge at the speed of light, but there are some things we need from you in these cases:
If any other technical and security concern arises for any reason, immediately notify the Support and Security Operations teams for assistance, even if it’s only suspicion. To help avoid these incidents, you can take the following precautions:
You stick ‘em, you remove ‘em. If you want to express yourself creatively using stickers on your laptop or other equipment, you do you! If you want your laptop to shine like a supernova, we get it. However, please know that you will be expected to remove those stickers appropriately when it is time for an upgrade or a change in equipment. You’re also welcome to go for a quick jaunt of time travel to remove them. Either way works for us.
InterWorks encourages you to share information with coworkers and with those outside the company for the purposes of gathering information, generating new ideas, and learning from the work of others. Social media provides inexpensive, informal and timely ways to participate in an exchange of ideas and information. However, information posted on a website may be available to the public, and therefore, the company has established these guidelines when you are participating in social media.
Note: As used in this policy, “social media” refers to blogs, forums, and social networking sites, such as X/Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat, among others.
You may maintain personal websites or blogs on your own time using your own facilities. In general, we consider social media activities to be personal endeavors, and employees may use them to express their thoughts or promote their ideas — but primarily on your own time. Sure, there is always some overlap between what is work and what is personal in a place like this, but we do ask that you work to keep a separation in your time.
Demonstrate respect for the dignity of InterWorks, our customers, our vendors and our other employees. A social media site is a public place, and we should avoid inappropriate comments, or the sharing of information related to any of these folks without permission.
Do not use social media to criticize our competition. That’s pretty simple.
Please do not identify or reference clients, customers or vendors without express permission. Of course, you may write about your work and experiences in general, but do not disclose any confidential or proprietary information.
Nothing in this policy is meant to, nor should it be interpreted to, in any way limit your rights under any applicable federal, state or local laws, including rights under the NLRA to engage in protected concerted activities with others to improve or discuss terms and conditions of employment, such as wages, working conditions and benefits. Employees have the right to engage in or refrain from such activities.
Remember that new ideas related to your work or our business, belong to InterWorks. Do not post these on social media without permission.
Do not use our (or others’) trademarks on social media or reproduce any material without first obtaining permission.
Violations of this policy may result in discipline up to and including immediate termination of employment.