Is It Possible To Remote Access Your Work Computer?

A number of people often ask the question - if I was to set up remote access functionality on my work computer - would I be able to access this from home, and thereby do work from home? The answer in most cases is "no", and in this article, we will see exactly why that is.

The thing is, most businesses prefer if you separate your working life from your home life. Second to this is the privacy factor. Most businesses will want their files to remain solely on their computers, and only be opened and looked at from the comfort of the office.

It is therefore no surprise that a number of workers unions and business round tables have backed the idea that remote access to work computers should be banned. This isn't to say that an employee could install remote access software on their home computer, and then perform the accessing part of the process from work. It simply means that in general, companies have a policy about utilizing work files from home.

Exceptions To The Rule.

As with any generalized rule, there is always an exception. In this case, there are 2 major exceptions that we can think of. Here they are.

1. Management's Ability To Access Files.

If you are a member of the management team of a particular organization, you could very well expect to be allowed access to company files from anywhere you are. There are many reasons for this, the least being to create efficiency and allow files to be access on the run. However, even this is sometimes frowned upon, so really it is reliant on your particular organizations view on the issue.

2. Company Emails.

Company emails are actually classified legally as "company files" or "property" - which means that if you were to access your work emails from home or somewhere else in the world, you would be in breach of any "anti access" rules. 

Because emails are so necessary in today's modern business world, it makes sense to allow employees to have full access - whether it be remote access or not - to their emails at all times. As such, this is an exception to the remote access rules in action at most organization - but it is certainly a reasonable exclusion.