CS 312 Yevgeniy Bangiyev
Summary of “Companies Step Up Electronic
Monitoring of Employees”
The article describes a survey taken by the American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute in 2005. The survey indicates that electronic monitoring of employees by employers is continuing to increase. This is not only due to employers trying to keep an eye on productivity and prevent exposure of important company information, but also because of worries about leaving any kind of electronic evidence that could be used against the company in court.
The
survey involved more than 500 companies and shows that half of them have fired employees
for their internet or email use. Non-work-related web browsing and email activity
are the greatest concerns of the companies surveyed and so these are the most
widely punished work offenses under electronic monitoring. Only six percent of
companies have fired employees for their work telephone use.
Besides monitoring internet, email, and
work telephone use, employers also examine keystrokes, keyboard use time, file
usage, and even time spent on a cell-phone (using GPS). A large majority of the
companies do warn their employees of how they will be monitored.
This
increase in employee monitoring has generated many lawsuits concerning privacy,
which resulted in limits on how employers are allowed to watch their workers. As
an example, the article tells of the
A recent case in
The article concludes that electronic
monitoring of employees is legitimate, but employers should limit the invasion
of privacy as much as possible. Also, the author seems to imply that the
Heydary, Javad. “Companies
Step Up Electronic Monitoring of Employees.” E-Commerce Times 21 July
2005.
<http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/44850.html>.