Is Google hangouts encrypted? Would my work's IT guys be able see pictures and text I send while on a work computer? Yes I know I shouldn't be sending stuff I don't want them to see while at work, but it wasn't at work. I use hangouts on my phone as well and just realized I use the hangouts Chrome plug-in at work and it was syncing all my conversations.
You should assume that they can. There are various ways they can do it, but whether they actually do it depends on company's standards and practices. Some of the options:


It's possible to install additional root certificates on company's machines
and use that to MITM all the traffic (traffic goes through company's
gateway/proxy anyway, and having friendly root certificate on user's
PC allows to do a full MITM);
It's possible to install "employee monitoring software", which is essentially a key logger + process monitor + screen grabber. Some tools have capacity to locally intercept received messages in chats.
It's possible to use remote access/collaboration tools to monitor what's happening on the screen of a particular PC.


In short, if you don't have control over the PC you're working on (and with company's workstations you typically don't), you cannot assume it's free from such surveillance implants.

Hope that's not too scary :)
