Personal Possessions in the Workplace

It is natural to want to bring items from home into your workplace. A potted plant on the desk, a few magazines in the drawer, a packet of sweets, a CD or two: these things help personalise a working environment and make the day feel a little more comfortable. Most of what people bring in is harmless. Some of it can quietly put your privacy at risk if you are not careful, and that is what this article is about.

Think for a moment about the items you have brought to work in the past month. A credit card bill you meant to pay over the phone at lunchtime. A letter from your GP. A spare set of house keys you forgot to take out of your bag. Each of these, left on a desk or in an unlocked drawer, can give a colleague, a cleaner, a contractor or a passing visitor more information about you than you would ever willingly share.

Your first line of defence

The simplest protection is to leave personal items at home wherever you can. Some things genuinely do need to come with you, but plenty of items end up in a bag out of habit rather than necessity. Before you set off in the morning, ask whether what you are carrying contains your home address, your phone number, financial details, a PIN or a password. If so, there is usually a better place for it than your desk drawer.

Where you do need to bring something personal to work, plan how you are going to keep it out of sight. A locked drawer or locker is far better than the top of a desk or the inside of a coat pocket hung in a shared cloakroom. If your employer provides lockers, use them. If not, it is reasonable to ask whether secure storage can be made available, particularly in workplaces with a lot of foot traffic.

Items that can compromise your privacy

The following are the kinds of things worth being careful with:

• bank statements and other financial correspondence, which carry account numbers and sort codes
• credit card bills, which often include long reference numbers a fraudster can use
• keys to your home or car, especially if kept with anything showing your address
• medical paperwork, test results and prescriptions, which reveal health information you may prefer to keep private
• payslips, P60s and appraisal forms, which show salary and personal circumstances
• passports, driving licences and other identity documents
• diaries, notebooks and personal letters
• mobile phones, USB sticks and personal laptops, which can hold large quantities of data on a single device
• photographs of family members, particularly children, which can identify them by name and age

None of these items is dangerous in itself. The problem is the information attached to them. A discarded bank statement gives someone your account number, sort code and a sample of your signature. A prescription gives away medical details. A photograph on your desk can tell a stranger the names and ages of your children.

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Practical steps you can take

Carry personal paperwork between home and work in a sealed envelope or folder rather than loose. Dispose of anything sensitive through a shredder rather than the office recycling bin, which is not a safe place for documents with your details on.

Make personal calls about money, health or family matters away from your desk. Step outside, use a quiet meeting room or wait until you are off the premises. Reading out a long card number across an open plan office is rarely a good idea, regardless of who you think is listening.

Lock your phone. A handset left unlocked on a desk gives anyone walking past access to your contacts, your messages, your banking apps and often your email. Set a PIN or biometric lock and use it. The same applies to personal laptops or tablets you bring in for the commute.

Under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, your employer has obligations around how it handles your personal information at work. Those rules apply to data the employer holds about you, but they are a useful reminder that personal data has legal weight, and treating your own paperwork with care is part of the same picture.

Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.

Can your employer search you or your belongings?

There is no general right for an employer to search an employee or their possessions. A search can usually only take place where there is a clear contractual basis for it, normally written into your contract of employment, a staff handbook or a workplace policy that you have been made aware of. Random searches in particular need to be set out clearly and agreed in advance. The policy should explain when a search may happen, how it will be conducted and what your rights are during it.

Even where such a policy exists, a search will usually require your consent at the time. You can refuse, although refusing may have consequences under your employer's disciplinary procedure if the policy has been properly communicated, and it may also affect the working relationship even where the refusal is lawful. Searches should be carried out in private, by someone of the same sex where appropriate, and ideally with a witness present. Employers in retail, warehousing and similar sectors are more likely to have these arrangements in place than office employers.

If a crime is suspected, that is a separate matter. Only the police have powers of search and arrest, and they generally need a warrant or reasonable grounds to suspect an offence before exercising those powers, with stop and search governed by specific legislation. An employer who believes a theft has taken place can call the police, but they cannot detain you or force you to open your bag.

Bag and locker checks should not be used as a fishing exercise into your private life. The purpose of any search policy is normally to protect company property, not to discover what you have brought from home. If you feel a search has been carried out unfairly, or that personal information has been looked at when it had no bearing on the employer's concerns, you can raise a grievance through your workplace procedure. ACAS offers free guidance on grievances and workplace disputes through its helpline and website. The Information Commissioner's Office deals with complaints where personal data has been mishandled, for example if records of a search were kept and shared without a proper basis.

A sensible balance

Bringing some personal items to work is part of normal life and there is no reason to feel paranoid about it. The point is simply to be selective. Most privacy problems at work do not come from deliberate snooping. They come from paperwork left on a desk overnight, a phone left unlocked at lunchtime, or a bag tipped over in the corridor. A little thought before you leave the house is usually all it takes.

The Next Step

Now that you have read through the advice above, you might want to put it into practice. Our Workplace Privacy Checker lets you describe what your employer is monitoring or asking for and find out whether it is lawful under UK privacy and data protection law. Try it now →