Friday, March 27, 2009

Wokplace E Monitoring

After listening to the two groups present their two different topics on Wednesday, there was one topic that stuck out more than the other: workplace e monitoring. I always knew that workplace e monitoring existed but until the group explained it. I was shocked at the extent that companies will go in order to secure company information. Workplace e monitoring is a neccesary entity to ensure that the business is functioning as ordered but to what extent does this process become evasive. I believe that workplace e monitoring can help out functioning of a business but I do think that employers these days are taking it little overboard.
For example, I work in a grocery store as a customer service supervisor. One day while I was helping a customer at the desk, I received a phone call from someone at corporate. While I was talking to the person from corporate, I had taken out my cell phone to look to see who texted me. The person from corporate asked me, "Do you have your phone out?". At first, I could not say anything but "Huh" but then he repeated himself and asked if I had my phone out. He then described to the tee exactly what I was doing and this made me a little uneasy. This only made me think about how far a company was willing to go to ensure there was not foul play at their expense.
I think that workplace e monitoring is good overrall but should be limited. When it allows for you to access a person's most personal thoughts and activities, then it has gone overboard. If workplaces are taking the initiative to track their employees, then who's next? Will Universities start tracking the activities of their students to ensure "SAFETY". I don't know but I know that I am not for it at all

16 comments:

  1. The e-monitoring thing was pretty creepy to me too. Having working at the government level (state and federal), all of your e-mails can be considered "public record," and since you're being paid with tax payer dollars, they can be very serious about how you use the office's resources. That being said, they're very upfront about the issue and let their employees know about what they can an cannot be doing at work.

    That's why I think transparency and honesty is the best policy with workplace e-monitoring. I think when a company secretly spies on its employees, it creates a culture of distrust and people always second guessing their decisions. As an employee, I would prefer my supervisor to let us all know that, yes, corporate will be periodically surveying what we are doing, so stay on task and just don't do anything stupid.

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  2. I had experience with workplace e-monitoring too. I was working at a clothing boutique on a Sunday, when there was probably a customer or two who came in every two hours. My co-worker and I were bored out of our minds as normal, and we went on websites on celebrity gossip. Like a week later, the owner of the store sent out an e-mail to all the workers, saying how sales were down and we shouldn't be going on Hollywood Gossip/whatever. I mean we went on the websites not really caring if our supervisors would check the sites we were on but still, it was somewhat annoying. It's not as if there were any customers that needed help while we were on those sites. But I guess the owner didn't know that. So...yes, I agree that e-monitoring should be limited at the workplace especially when it is wasted on such trivial situations.

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  3. Workplace e - monitoring is a tricky subject because I feel like I both agree and disagree with this concept. I feel that if I were in charge of a company I would want to make sure that my employees were on task and not making ill use of my time or my company's resources. On the other hand, as an employee I feel that it is an invasion of my privacy and that it is inappropriate to an extent, especially when there are cameras involved. I think that there should be limitations in e-monitoring and that both the employee and boss should go over these limitations together. The employee should know that they will be monitored and to what extent that way they don't feel blindsided or paranoid.

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  4. I agree with Kristine when she says that it is a tricky subject because it really can go either way. Companies have a right to make sure their business is working at the highest level of efficiency, but the question is, to what extent? My stance on the situation is that certain things should always be allowed to be kept private and nobody should be allowed to gain access to them. When it comes to companies and e monitoring I think that things like personal emails should be kept private. I think that the fact that something is taking up company time is the issue that matters, not necessarily what it was about. Also, if e monitoring is allowed to continue at an extreme level then it needs to communicated to the employees. The goal shouldnt be to catch people in the act but eliminate the problem all together, and I think awareness is the key.

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  5. Workplace e-monitoring is a pretty fascinating issue considering how invasive it can be but also how good it can be. Obviously there has to be some limit to how much a company can do to ensure the privacy and saftey of its employess but sometimes it is really ridiculous. The crazy network of cameras and the idea that someone in the ssame company as you has a job to monitor your activities at work seems a bit absurd. People need breaks at work, people need to keep there sanity and freaking out about a text message or a small distraction is a little overboard. People at work aren't going to be able to work 100% of the day yet since we live in America, the expectation is even set that high- one slip up and your through. I really think its cool that we have technology that can track that bad behavior or employees to keep the company and the consumer safe but the idea of these people being privately invaded as it seems sometimes is just uncalled for.

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  6. Workplace e-monitoring is a pretty fascinating issue considering how invasive it can be but also how good it can be. Obviously there has to be some limit to how much a company can do to ensure the privacy and saftey of its employess but sometimes it is really ridiculous. The crazy network of cameras and the idea that someone in the ssame company as you has a job to monitor your activities at work seems a bit absurd. People need breaks at work, people need to keep there sanity and freaking out about a text message or a small distraction is a little overboard. People at work aren't going to be able to work 100% of the day yet since we live in America, the expectation is even set that high- one slip up and your through. I really think its cool that we have technology that can track that bad behavior or employees to keep the company and the consumer safe but the idea of these people being privately invaded as it seems sometimes is just uncalled for.

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  7. I have mixed feelings about the concept of workplace e monitoring. On the one hand, I understand that the company wants to make a profit and doesn't want it's workers slacking off on the job by doing unnecessary things on line, or stealing from the company. But I also believe that a good worker is one who has the freedom to take some time off from work every now and then to let the mind relax. A little web browsing doesn't hurt anyone and could actually help the worker be more productive.
    I think the story of the text is also really creepy. Do they want us to be cut off from the outside world while we work? That doesn't seem to be fair or realistic.

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  8. I agree that there is an extent to which companies should have this power, and it really isn't regulated the way it should be. I understand that companies want to safeguard their information, but why not have employees sign paperwork saying they will under any circumstances give company information out to other companies, even if you no longer work there. They should only track information that pertains to their company information. Tracking keystrokes, number of bathroom/smoke breaks, internet tracking, etc. all take it too far. If I naturally type slower than the next person, how can you judge that their productivity is more/better than mine all because I can't type as fast? In the end it should be regulated and there should be certain boundaries set in place depending on the type of company and the level of security needed.

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  9. Sam, I totally agree with you. Companies need to be more upfront with their employees. I think that if employees knew they were under surveillance, then there would be less issues of people trying to steal information from the source. I also think that employees should sign a waiver giving the company the right to check on them that way there would be less confusion. The methods being used now are extremely invasive and need to be changed

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  10. I agree with a lot of these comments. I think workplace e-monitoring is a useful tool that companies will inevitably use, but I think that employees should be notified. Without notification of exactly how they're being supervised, e-monitoring is an invasion of privacy. Companies should inform their employees what they are doing to "secure" their company and make sure its employees are using their time efficiently. Informing employees about e-monitoring will also make them more alert and willing to use their time efficiently. They'll know that they're being monitored and will therefore be more careful about how they spend their time. This is also a way for the company to respect its employees. Nothing is more humiliating than being confronted at work about how you're using the internet when you didn't know your employer could see what you were doing. The employee has a right to know what's going on in the place he or she spends most of the day. E-monitoring is a good tool for companies, but should be used with full disclosure.

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  11. im not completely sure how i feel about workplace e-monitoring. the reason for this is that ive never had to deal with it all that much. im sure that if i had an experience like the one about the corporate officer asking if i had a cell phone out, i would be uneasy and cautious about e-monitoring. since i have never had to deal with this, i do not necessarily have a problem with it, and i even think that it can be useful.
    i completely understand why companies would want to keep track of what people are doing in the workplace, while at the same time it is easy to see how they could take this privilege overboard. I believe there has to be a delicate balance between a person's private life and its existence in the workplace.

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  12. I feel that there needs to be workplace e-monitoring to a certain extent. It should be a moderate level of e-monitoring. Nothing too extreme, like the grocery store example from the original poster. It is pretty creepy when the corporate office is watching the employees’ every step. I feel that companies should implement e-monitoring but also rely on honesty from the employees. Even though not all employees are going to be honest, the employers should be able to hire appropriate candidates through their interview process. I also agree that companies should be upfront with their e-monitoring. When they hire employees they should let them know what their e-monitoring policies are and what would happen if employees break the rules. Overall, I believe that if companies decide to use e-monitoring they should not go over the top with their policies and they should not keep their policies secret.

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  13. It seems to me like the problem with workplace e-monitoring is how supervisors use it. I know that when I shop at a grocery store, for instance, I am being monitored constantly, and it doesn't bother me because I know that there is nothing that those watching me can legally do anything to me unless I were to rob or vandalize their store (for instance). However, if I were in their employ, I would feel much less comfortable about the monitoring--in large part because of what those who watch will do. Who cares if you have your phone out? There is no point for corporate to say anything to you--except to hammer in the fact that you're being watched. Just because a supervisor can see everything you do does not mean that he or she should try to micromanage your actions. Supervisors should monitor employees to make sure they aren't acting against the company or goofing off all day, but there is a way to be non-creepy and non-invasive with it.

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  14. The company that I am currently working for is a proponent of e monitoring in the workplace. Not only do we have a sophisticated video surveillance system, but also stroke monitoring on computers and the ability for a central computer to "jump" onto your computer and view exactly what you are viewing at that moment. I feel as if this is a bit evasive and I don't agree with this at all. I feel as if e-monitoring in the workplace is needed, however, as US citizens our rights should be more protected when viewing sensitive information.

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  15. Having worked in the financial sector last summer, I became familiar with workplace e-monitoring. With all the fears of things such as insider trading, front-running investments, and the like it becomes obvious why companies in this sector do such things. Every e-mail that I sent and every webpage that I visited were kept in a database on our servers, easily accessible to my bosses.

    While it made me uneasy to an extent (like when I was surfing NikeStore.com for shoes) I also felt safe in the fact that the funds would not fail on account of someone's personal greed or indiscretion. I'm not sure if having my personal bank statements (or at least snapshots of the web page) stored by the company is a good idea, but I suppose that I shouldn't really be looking at my account balance during work anyway. All in all I am in favor of workplace e-monitoring.

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  16. E-monitoring is a necessity, and any business should reserve the right to monitor its employees to whatever extent it seems necessary. At the same time, each employee must be aware of what is being monitored, and how. An overly-monitored workplace is going to make for an unproductive environment due to anxiety, or a lack of trust, among a variety of other issues. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the employer to find the right balance of trust and monitoring.

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