Due to the increase in cyberloafing, inappropriate emails, and lawsuits, employee monitoring has become more widespread and much easier and cheaper to use thanks to new and improved technologies. Both employers and employees are concerned with how ethical this surveillance may be. Employers are using these monitoring devices to keep track of their employees productivity, email use, and what websites the employees are viewing during the day. These employees feel that to much of this monitoring is an invasion of their privacy and can cause a conflict between the employer and employee. Therefore researchers have taken this opportunity to understand the ethics of monitoring employees and the current practices that employers are using are being explored and discussed.
One of the most important steps an employer needs to take is by making ethical standards for all employees and educating all employees on such standards. To understand what is ethical and what is unethical you should understand some key terms. Webster's Illustrated Contemporary Dictionary states the definition of ethics as the basic principles of right actions. Values are things regarded as desirable, worthy, or right, as a belief or an ideal. Morals pertain to character and behavior from society's view of right and wrong. A belief is the acceptance of something as real or actual. Ethics can also be the decision making of actions based on a set of values, morals, and beliefs that a person possesses.
A good question to ask yourself is, can technology change or influence our sense of values, morals, or ethics? From the information I've looked at they think yes, since technology can influence our actions and behaviors as it already has in many cases. Actions and behaviors, in turn, tend to form our values, ethics and ultimately our character; but this is a question that I believe every employee should ask themselves and so should employers.
The internet is a huge playground for adults of many different hobbies, so let's explore some of those hobbies. According to a study conducted by ComStore Networks, 59% of on-line sales in 2002 were conducted from the shopper's workplace. Peak Internet access from work occurred between 10 A.M. and Noon. That means many employees are taking advantage of employer-provided access to the Web to conduct distinctly non-work related business. This includes shopping, bidding on on-line auctions, booking travel, visiting chat rooms, writing personal e-mails or just surfing the Internet as a hobby. One company in Seattle, N3H3, which tracks lost productivity, estimates that conducting personal business and surfing at work costs the typical 1000 employee company approximately 11 million dollars a year (Future Magazine 2003) and another study totals this to about 63 billion dollars each for American firms (http://www.huizenga.nova.edu/Jame/articles/employee-monitoring.cfm).
Many laws have emerged since the internet was first released by the Pentagon in 1984 and the most recent on April 30, 1995 when NSF handed over control of the Internet to private sector. But the internet continues to change, evolve which in turn new laws are created and implemented into the workplace. The internet is an exciting tool that many businesses use daily for everything from inventory, to employee salaries. But the internet is also the same exciting tool that has caused many employees to lose their job over. This is where the issue of surveillance being ethical or not. Is it ethical for employees to constantly monitor all of their employees actions, and when is it to much?
http://www.huizenga.nova.edu/Jame/articles/employee-monitoring.cfm
I think it is ethical for an employer to monitor their employees activity while at work. I think that once you are on the clock, in a workplace you should not be doing anything you wouldn't want your employer to see.
ReplyDeleteThis topic is very interesting because I believe that surveillance amongts employees is an ethical process of monitoring what is occuring upon their networks. I feel that since employees are using the company's network,software,and hardware,the employer sholud have some type of ability to monitor what is going in their company. Tracking what sites their employees is benefical to management because if someone is spending more time on social medias rather than work assigned to them, then why hire people and keep people that do not dedicate their ultimate time and ability to the company. I agree that there must be a line drawn that employers cannot overly monitor their employees, but again if you are an employee that has things to worry about, then that person should decide to visit sites that do not correlate with the job be done on mobile device's or on a home network. Again,I believe monitoring the employees internet access is an ethical issue.
ReplyDeleteEven though I wish managers didn't have to monitor their employees I think that monitoring is needed in corporations. As soon as employees get to work they are on the clock getting paid. They are wasting their employers time and delaying whatever it is they need to accomplish. Of course, I don't believe that, unless rather draconian measures are enacted, this will ever be completely stopped. Perhaps companies should find ways to lessen the impact this may have on them. And of course, not all employees are strictly wasting time. They could have finished an assignment and are taking a short break, or have some sort of urgent email they need to attend to. They aren't all lazy people with no sense of responsibility. Everyone gets bored at work at some point. Companies should learn how to mitigate any damages, place restrictions, or just learn how to somehow make this a part of their company. Maybe give employees 10 min to update facebook or check emails. Also, most managers are as guilty as their employees, that hypocritical behavior isnt helping this situation either.
ReplyDeleteSometimes just the presence of a camera can make people work harder. At my job there are cameras all over, and I'm not sure if they are on or if they are even recording. I always make sure that I'm doing the right thing just in case the tapes are pulled I won't be in jeopardy. I don't think employers should use the cameras to be intrusive, but I understand how having them can increase productivity
ReplyDeleteI agree. My boss doesn't tape me but he trusts me. There have been many occasions in which I was tempted to cruise the web but I felt bad violating his trust. There are people out there that don't have this issue though. The are self centered and self serving. Because of these people many businesses do have to rely on video
DeleteIt's really a toss up when you examine the ethical ramifications of workplace internet surveillance. On one hand you have the employer that wants peak efficiency from his or her employees so it's probably in their best interest to observe what their employees do on the clock because if given the opportunity a good number of employees will slack off with the distraction of the internet.
ReplyDeleteIs it necessary to watch their email? I don't think so because more than likely their personal emails that come through their work email are important and don't take too much out of their work. I think when it comes down to it if employees are given a little personal internet time they are more likely to work harder than if they were just zombies going through the motions.
In the end I think blocking and observing websites is an ethical practice in the workplace, but overall email surveillance is going a little far in my book.
I was talking to our IT manager the other day and he was mentioning that one of the methods they are using to curb internet misuse at other companies is not only monitoring IP addresses, but also installing software that captures a print screen at random intervals from user machines and sends them to the IT department. IT not only curbs internet misuse, but also locally stored application misuse. I think just the fact that employees know someone is watching will keep internet misuse to a minimum.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very insightful article Tara, thanks! I think I would want to add one point to this discussion. Internet usage in the workplace is, for the most part, a way to blow off steam or waste time. This is not a new problem. People have been wasting time at work for the entire history of mankind. Though the internet probably increases wasted time, it also replaces time that would be wasted otherwise (playing solitaire, etc.). I think there is a fine line between restricting certain types of inappropriate usage (pornography, or other such things) and preventing employees from doing things to clear their mind, like checking social media.
ReplyDeleteInstead of individually commenting on what all of you had to say I wanted to do one comment and touch on everyone's point. It seems to me that everyone agrees that employees misusing the internet during work is unacceptable and all of us can agree that its not unethical for employers to do some sort of monitoring. What interesting to me is reading about how many people calm that if they are at work they are doing their work and not misusing the internet. It's hard to believe that most everyone doesn't slack off here and there even if its for a short amount of time. But that's not the issue here. The issue here is how far employers are willing to go to keep their employees loyal and productivity high and how ethical is the method that they choose to use. It's up to the employees discretion, and if they feel its unethical they really only have two options. Quit or get over it and do your job.
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