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Employee is Using His Spouse as a Personal Assistant

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  • 08-07-2015, 11:01 AM
    BrianS
    Employee is Using His Spouse as a Personal Assistant
    My question involves business law in the state of: IL

    We are based out of the Chicagoland area. We have a salesmen in Arizona. He is having his wife reply to customer inquiries for him, access our CRM system (customer database) and manage his travel details.

    I am not comfortable with her working basically as an agent of the company even though the owner said she could. Is there some sort of legal advice we should purse to make sure we are covered? Having access to our customer database (no banking information, only public contact information and correspondence between the two companies) and employee's email account makes me uncomfortable but should some sort of NDA or contract be signed by both parties saying she has permission to act as an agent of the company, can not disclose customer details etc. be signed?

    Suggestions?
  • 08-07-2015, 11:07 AM
    eerelations
    Re: Salesmen's Spouse Working for Him
    There are no laws prohibiting employees' spouses from working for said employees. If the owner said she can do this, then she can do this.

    While contracts and NDAs etc. are a good idea, they are not required by law.

    The only legal issue I see here is whether or not she is being paid. Legally, she may only work for free if your company is a charitable non-profit charitable organization. If it isn't then legally, she must be placed on the payroll and paid at least minimum wage.
  • 08-07-2015, 11:12 AM
    llworking
    Re: Salesmen's Spouse Working for Him
    Quote:

    Quoting eerelations
    View Post
    There are no laws prohibiting employees' spouses from working for said employees. If the owner said she can do this, then she can do this.

    While contracts and NDAs etc. are a good idea, they are not required by law.

    The only legal issue I see here is whether or not she is being paid. Legally, she may only work for free if your company is a charitable non-profit charitable organization. If it isn't then legally, she must be placed on the payroll and paid at least minimum wage.

    I suspect that the salesman is an independent contractor sales rep.
  • 08-07-2015, 11:42 AM
    cbg
    Re: Salesmen's Spouse Working for Him
    I understand and share your concern; however as ee says there's nothing illegal about it if the boss agrees to it.
  • 08-07-2015, 11:44 AM
    eerelations
    Re: Salesmen's Spouse Working for Him
    If he is, and he's not a registered non-profit charitable organization, then he needs to put his spouse on his payroll. :friendly_wink:

    That said though, if she's representing OP's company and not her husband's, the correct payroll may still be that of OP's company.
  • 08-07-2015, 11:46 AM
    adjusterjack
    Re: Salesmen's Spouse Working for Him
    Quote:

    Quoting BrianS
    View Post
    the owner said she could.
    Suggestions?

    Yes, back off and stay out of it.

    If it's OK with the owner (your boss) it's not your place to get into it.
  • 08-07-2015, 12:04 PM
    Taxing Matters
    Re: Salesmen's Spouse Working for Him
    Quote:

    Quoting BrianS
    View Post
    My question involves business law in the state of: IL

    I am not comfortable with her working basically as an agent of the company even though the owner said she could.
    Suggestions?

    And what is your position in the company that this concerns you so much? If the owner of the company says it’s fine, that ought to suffice for you since presumably the owner is your boss, right? Tread carefully here. Make too much of a fuss over it and it might not be your concern anymore because you won’t be working there.
  • 08-07-2015, 01:18 PM
    BrianS
    Re: Salesmen's Spouse Working for Him
    Quote:

    Quoting Taxing Matters
    View Post
    And what is your position in the company that this concerns you so much? If the owner of the company says it’s fine, that ought to suffice for you since presumably the owner is your boss, right? Tread carefully here. Make too much of a fuss over it and it might not be your concern anymore because you won’t be working there.

    Because I manage our network, user accounts, computers, emails, CRM system and am responsible for making sure all that data is secure. He says it is ok because he doesn't realize what it means to allow them to have access to it. I asked because I didn't know the legalities of customer data being collected and what might legally be defined as "shared" in this situation.

    A person that is not officially employed by the company having access to our customer information (even if it is just address info and correspondence), is not a good business practice. It may not be illegal, but from a security standpoint, it is not right. How would you like it if you bought a car from Ford and the spouse of a salesmen who had access to the entire customer database was looking at it, contacting customers and has the ability to take those contacts and say, download them into a .csv which could be given to anyone?
  • 08-07-2015, 01:26 PM
    llworking
    Re: Salesmen's Spouse Working for Him
    Quote:

    Quoting BrianS
    View Post
    Because I manage our network, user accounts, computers, emails, CRM system and am responsible for making sure all that data is secure. He says it is ok because he doesn't realize what it means to allow them to have access to it. I asked because I didn't know the legalities of customer data being collected and what might legally be defined as "shared" in this situation.

    A person that is not officially employed by the company having access to our customer information (even if it is just address info and correspondence), is not a good business practice. It may not be illegal, but from a security standpoint, it is not right. How would you like it if you bought a car from Ford and the spouse of a salesmen who had access to the entire customer database was looking at it, contacting customers and has the ability to take those contacts and say, download them into a .csv which could be given to anyone?

    I used to be the CFO of a small local corporation that had independent contractor sales reps all across the US. Some of those reps were actual companies, with actual employees of their own...and often those employees were family members. They all had access to whatever their boss needed them to have access to in order to do the job. This is very very common. Its not at all unusual.
  • 08-07-2015, 01:58 PM
    BrianS
    Re: Salesmen's Spouse Working for Him
    Quote:

    Quoting llworking
    View Post
    I used to be the CFO of a small local corporation that had independent contractor sales reps all across the US. Some of those reps were actual companies, with actual employees of their own...and often those employees were family members. They all had access to whatever their boss needed them to have access to in order to do the job. This is very very common. Its not at all unusual.

    Ok, Still thinking something should be in place like an NDA.
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