How to tell how long a file was open 3

[kmarr]

I have an employee who is storing some personal msword files on our office computer system. I don't have a problem with that as long as she is using this as a sort of backup and not actually working on these during company time. Is there a way to tell how long these files were open or what changes were made to them while they are in our system. This is a networked system with 4 users and everyone has windows xp except me, I have windows 98.

Thanks in advance, Ken

 

[mattjurado]

No, but if you change the view on that computer to view>details in explorer, you can see when it was last modified.

Matt J.

Please always take the time to backup any and all data before performing any actions suggested for ANY problem, regardless of how minor a change it might seem. Also test the backup to make sure it is intact.

 

[herrslime]

There is a difference between how long the file was open versus how long it was worked on. So knowing how long it was open doesn't tell you how much of company time has been spent during personal business. She could open the file at 9:00 in the morning and do 2 minutes work on it at 4:00 in the afternoon. Open time would show 7 hours when she only spent 2 minutes on it. That probably wouldn't help you.

There are many different spy software packages on the market that you could use to monitor her actual work. You would need to address the legal issues of this and establish published policies on usage of company time and computers.

Or you could just tell her not to and see what happens. Or forget about it.

 

[tviman]

Herrslime makes a good point. Just that fact that you've allowed your employees to put personal files on company computers has greatly undermined your ability to enforce any kind of restrictions. Your only LEGAL recourse at this point is to put a new policy into effect that prohibits personal files and personal work on company PC's - period. Once this is in effect, then you can take whatever legal steps you deem necessary to enforce your policy.

In my view, I'd be more worried about my employees unknowingly (or knowingly) introducing viruses into my company files than being worried about the time they spent working on their personal stuff. It's fairly obvious that you've never experienced the frustations and problems that a virus can cause to a computer system or had to endure the cost of lost productivity as well as having the virus removed.

Please don't take this the wrong way... companies like yours keep me in business and I make a VERY GOOD living doing it. I have seen businesses literally brought to their knees inadvertantly by a well meaning employee who just wanted to print a letter to Mom! I had one client who was doing the EXACT SAME THING as you and the cost of recovery forced them to close the business.

I hope you can get this taken care of soon... if not, please call me!



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