Outside Activities Report - Legal or Not?

[Ian]

Every year, my place of employment makes me fill out an outside activities report, telling them what I do outside of work. Given, I do work in the computer industry, but CDRLabs, nor anyone we deal with, benefit in any way. It's not like I'm sitting on the board of directors at Sonic Foundry, telling my employees to buy $50,000 pieces of hardware (no joke).

I always drag my feet and tell them its none of their business. They always give me the same line about it being a state (I work for the state) policy.. blah blah. Eventually I fill it out since I get sick of them nagging me.

What would they do if I filled out the form, telling them I ran a legal, but unpopular, business like a porn site or was an adult entertainer? Fire me? I've been very tempted to register frogporn.com or something, put it in the report and see what they do. Maybe next year..

I guess my question for all of you folks is is this really legal?

[burninfool]

That's odd Ian I've never been asked that while employed with a company,I've been asked during a job interview though.
I would play along but make sh*t up(eg.I go to church every Sunday,I coach little league,etc),if you don't play along it might cost you a promotion.

[Ian]

From what I can gather, it's not so much what your hobbies are (though CDRLabs is for me), but rather whether or not you, or someone you know, will benefit from your position.

We deal with a lot of research, so I'm sure they're worried about someone getting an inside lead and it turning into a Martha Stewart thing.

[Spazmogen]

It probably is legal.

Even here in Police Dispatch-land I have to fill out a request for outside employment, even if I wanted to start a part time business and be my own boss. Yes, they could deny me permission to have a 2nd job. I work for the Province. So its a similar set up, just a different country.

[CowboySlim]

You're stuck, I have to do it also in so-called private industry.

[ruderacer]

The same with the Federal Government. If you have an outside job or business you must fill the paperwork so that they are aware of what's going on. Even if you do volunteer work they want to know.

Just another way of BIG BROTHER WATCHING.

[LoneWolf]

yeah, when I was younger I looked into a summer job being offered as a bike mechanic in a small town two hours from where I lived (teeny apartment came with it), I was told that if I was hired on, I had to sign an ACC saying I'd never work at another bike shop in the same town. No time limits (now that I think about it, I have to wonder whether that can be done legally). Needless to say, I walked away from that one.

I understand why a research firm would make you do something like this to avoid industrial espionage, as long as they aren't asking extremely personal questions about information that could be used against you later, and as long as they have a fully defined privacy policy about what they are allowed to do with the information they collect, something that would clearly define their liability in case they ever break their own policy. Is there anything like that?

[CowboySlim]

It doesn't matter what you put down, the bureaucrats don't care. All that they care about is turning in a 100% compliance metric up the ladder.