Lisa Guerin

If your job involves developing basic, easy-to-understand, corporate policies on corporate technology use, this book is for you. Complete with a CD full of sample policies, it practically does your job for you. As a bonus, though, it's actually entertaining to read!

The book includes interesting case studies involving legal challenges, some won by the company thanks to solid policy, some lost by the company by not uniformly enforcing said policy. It also provides some insight on how to beat show more restrictions if you are so inclined -- the author consults with technical experts to find out how clever employees circumvent corporate controls. I'd have given the book more praise if it had included some of my favorite tricks; but those offered weren't half bad.

Guerin does a good job combining issues involving different technologies into a comprehensive whole. What is permissible in a blog, for instance, should also cover what is permissible in an instant message. This is appreciated by anyone who actually wants to make sense of such policies -- the thick packet I was given at my current job containing the technology has so far gone unread -- I fast-forwarded to the sign-off page at the end, and decided it was easier to just limit my use of technology in a manner that can't possibly be objectionable. This limits creativity and keeps employees from maximizing use of tools at their disposal, but it's far better easier than assimilating all of the conditions that can result in termination.

As an IT manager, I've had to write policies that were afterward vetted by HR for inclusion in the corporate policy guide. I have read enough of them to know what needs to be there, and why. However, I'm also too close to the subject matter, and left completely to my own devices, I'd surely miss something. This book will help avoid omission. If you happen to be curious as to why companies implement policies as they do, this book should convince you it's for the best. And did I mention it's fun to read? I wish I could say the same about our actual policies. show less

This excellent and timely book is an inexpensive must have for offices. Having created multiple policies, I found this to be a one-stop resource. Material includes key points to consider, sample policy, and legal/real life examples to demonstrate the importance of each aspect to be covered. There is also a Windows CD with text, making policies very easy to compile for review and implementation. Technology changes often, and the recommendation to review at least this portion of office policy show more at least twice a year is sound. show less

Lisa Guerin, J.D., does a great job explaining legal and legalistic terms in simple language. She cuts through the complexities of issues and gets to the points that people in Human Resources departments need to know.

This book calls itself a "Desk Reference," and that is exactly what it is. It is a reference work, like a small encyclopedia, containing short articles arranged alphabetically by topic. As such, however, it has the drawback of all encyclopedias: it doesn't have an overview, or show more a big-picture account of employment law (if such a thing is even possible). It doesn't for instance, offer a step-by-step procedure for handling an EEOC complaint, nor does it offer suggestions about how to structure the hiring process to minimize the likelihood of provoking such a complaint. Thus, it is not the sort of book one would use in planning or designing policies. One would mostly need it when trying to understand some scary-looking letter one has just received from a lawyer.

Still, for the purposes it envisions, it seems quite valuable.

One complaint I have, that ought to be be addressed in any new editions, is that it is not cross-referenced. When reading about one topic, several other legal concepts will be invoked. Only if one recognizes those concepts as legalese, would one think to look them up. It would be very useful to indicate any terms defined elsewhere in the book, say by putting the defined concepts in boldface.

One feature of the book I like very much is that the reader can approach a topic from different standpoints. For instance, I would not, in the normal course of my day, think to look up the expression "Title VII," but if that scary letter has just mentioned a "Title VII" issue, I can turn to this book. I might, however, out of curiosity or concern look up "discrimination," without being prompted by a lawyer. By looking up either expression, I will quickly find the important articles, but the one under "discrimination" gives two very clear examples that illustrate the difference between legal and illegal discrimination. And that kind of information is much more satisfying, given the sort of question that probably prompted me to look up "discrimination" in the first place. show less

Typical for a Nolo book, you get a well organized, more-than-a-layperson and less-than-a-lawyer view of the relevant issues. This is a review of the second edition of this book, published two years after the first, which includes an additional 20 pages. It starts with a general overview of why you might need such policies in the first place. The rest of the book coherently carves out the role of specific technologies in the workplace including e-mail, camera phones, and company social media show more sites. Chapter 7, "Company-sponsored Social Media," was extremely relevant as my organization has just established a Facebook site. This chapter is now must reading by our Facebook committee members.

All chapters include an overview of the specific technology, and its general and unique issues. This is followed by extended discussion with numerous examples. A sample policy is always listed at the end of each chapter. In my organization's case, most of the policies would be overkill. However, it's far easier to remove provisions you don't need, than to add ones you don't know exist. All of the sample policies are included on a CD-ROM and make excellent leaping off points for developing your own documents. Policies on the CD-ROM are in rich text format (rtf).

The chapters are liberally sprinkled with "Lessons from the Real World," examples of actual legal action relevant to a specific technology. For example, in Chapter 7 one can read about "Defamation in 140 Characters or Less" (page 144) where we are regaled with what the author claims may be "the first Twitter lawsuit." Courtney Love was served with legal papers for calling fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir "a prostitute, drug addict, and 'nasty lying hosebag thief.' " Indeed.

Copies of this book should probably go to the CEO, CIO, and head of HR. Also good for general reference collections in libraries.

This is a really tough subject area handled really well. Due to the ongoing changes in all things internetty I would expect to have to regularly buy new editions, or avail myself of the free legal updates posted at Nolo.com. show less