The public service is moving further into the private lives of its workers, with the Prime Minister's department laying down tough rules for its public servants' online activities.
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet's new rules go further than before in trying to gag comments on current affairs, but there are also instructions on how staff must manage personal Facebook profiles.
Details of the policy, sent to all PM&C staff and contractors last Friday, threaten dismissal for non-compliance.
The department, which has already asked its workers to dob in colleagues for their online activities, now insists its public servants lock their personal Facebook accounts with the tightest possible privacy settings and tells them how to configure their passwords.

The Community and Public Sector Union is furious about the policy, saying it portrayed a nanny-state attitude and intruded unreasonably into public servants' private lives.

CPSU deputy secretary Melissa Donnelly said the rules were causing widespread resentment in the department.

"This new policy from the Department of [the] Prime Minister and Cabinet absolutely goes too far in policing the private lives of staff," she said.

"Our members resent this nanny state attitude from the department.

"There's a fundamental contradiction in this policy, stating that staff don't need to be apolitical in their private lives but then all but banning criticism, and it's insulting the intelligence of staff to impose rules on what password and security settings they should have for their Facebook account.

"PM&C already had a social media policy that stretched the bounds of what's reasonable and went significantly beyond the already tough rules that apply through the APS code of conduct.

"There absolutely have to be rules in place, but that shouldn't mean applying a virtual gag on staff."

The policy contains a blanket ban on PM&C staff revealing their workplace on social media, something millions of Australians do routinely, and the rules leave little doubt on online freedom of expression.
"Expressing disparaging opinions about the government, the opposition, the department or government policies, or expressing strong political affiliations in any public forum is not appropriate behaviour for [Australian Public Service] employees," the policy says.
"Your personal opinions on these issues should be confined to closed forums."

There are strict new rules on how individual employees should manage their social media accounts and PM&C employees were left in no doubt about the consequences of "failing to comply" with the policy.

"Profiles must use a robust and secure password to protect the account from brute-force hacking attempts," the policy says.

"This password must be at least seven characters long and contain a mixture of punctuation and alpha-numeric characters.

"For your security, ensure that privacy settings on your accounts are set to private and high. Facebook has developed a privacy basic tool to help you keep your account secure.

"Those who fail to comply with this policy may face disciplinary action and, in serious cases, termination of their employment or engagement."

If I were an employer, what would concern me would be the time - my time - employees were wasting on social media.

Public serve us.............work???????

No compute?????????

bogarde73 wrote on Aug 26^th, 2016 at 11:33am:



you wouldn't be concerned is some employee who worked for you had your company name up there and he was making racist or lewd comments?

bogarde73 wrote on Aug 26^th, 2016 at 1:55pm:


AWWW give em a go?

If ya took face book away what would they have to do?
And even worse, what if the accidentally looked out the window in the morning, the whole day would be ruined, they would have absolutely nothing to do in the afternoon.

You know, once I saw a seat polisher pick up a piece of paper in the office by mistake.
Nearly had the whole public serveus out on strike.

bogarde73 wrote on Aug 26^th, 2016 at 11:19am:


I would suggest that this is just as true for workers in the private sector as it is for those in the public sector.

Gnads wrote on Aug 27^th, 2016 at 8:28am:


The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet's new rules go further than before in trying to gag comments on current affairs, but there are also instructions on how staff must manage personal Facebook profiles.
Deta


this is the PM dept they are talking about .. and rightly so...

some people think facebook is almost private...and harmless.........

if you worked in a BANK I doubt they would be pleased if you were discussing their customers accounts on facebook...

John Smith wrote on Aug 26^th, 2016 at 3:36pm:


I have worked for several technology companies that have a substantial social media presence and expect their employees to be active on social media, including some time spent during work hours.

Valkie wrote on Aug 26^th, 2016 at 12:40pm:


Having had several positions in both Public and private employment I would say that in my case the work expectation is probably greater on the public side and has been like that for over 30 years. Exceptions of course.

Dnarever wrote on Aug 27^th, 2016 at 9:23am:



that's probably because it's a technology company that relies on social media to get it's name out there ... not all companies want that

Dnarever wrote on Aug 27^th, 2016 at 9:27am:


Actually, there are many areas of the public service that work extreemly hard and are absolutely critical to our lifestyle and well being.
You know that Im sure.

But there are far more that do very little actual work other than trying to justify their existance.
These are the true parasites, seat polishers.
Even public servants hate these potatos as it makes them all look bad

Dnarever wrote on Aug 27^th, 2016 at 4:04pm:



dna m y daughter said someone she worked for was promoted to another dept.. he decided to do a check of what everyone in the Dept did....he discovered one lady hadnt turned up to work for almost 3 months....why no one knew...no she wasnt on sick leave..no one even noticed she was missing...they discovered she was at home alive and well just not bothering to show her face..when she was made to turn up she demanded all sort because she was a heavy smoker.and did not want to go outside 

as far as I know they are still allowed to get up and go for a smoke whenever they feel like it..

I am not sure how many private companies allow that... I bet its not many.

Wolseley wrote on Aug 26^th, 2016 at 10:09pm:


Probably true. I don't have first hand experience as an employee in the digital age, having been self-employed.
But I did have some time in the public service early on and I know, outside the higher echelon areas, the level of time-wasting was enormous.