How the Growth of Electronic Monitoring Has Changed Employee Expectations of Privacy in the Workplace

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The use of the internet for personal pursuits in the workplace has seen phenomenal growth over the last quarter century. Along with this growth, employers and employees alike have used the internet as a tool to increase profit, manage time and facilitate communications. However, such technological advancement has its issues. The problem investigated is how the growth of electronic monitoring has changed employee expectations of privacy in the workplace.

Should employees be able to use the internet for personal items while working?

Does the employee’s ability to do so ultimately save the employer time and money?

The answer to whether employees should use the internet for personal pursuits while working is both a yes and a no. The devil is in the details of the employer’s policies. A small business can monitor computer stations easily and may be more lax in this behavior as the intimacy of the office promotes a relational interaction. However, a large corporation may not have personal relationships with each of its employees and therefore may be unable to gauge potential abuse of time and resources of an employee who views themselves but a cog in the corporate machine and potentially invisible. Regardless, an employer may save time and money by showing flexibility of internet usage for personal tasks during say, a lunch break. This would minimize employee stress and limit employee time off to engage in such tasks. (Anandarajan, Simmers, & Igbaria, 2000)

How does secret or electronic monitoring differ from a manager’s decision to, without notice, walk around an office to observe behavior and work?

Secret Monitoring elicits images of Orson Welles Big Brother, a militant force devoid of empathy to the needs and desires...

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...from web.ebscohost.com

Hoffman, M. W., Hoffman, L. P., & Rowe, M. (2003, Fall). You’ve got mail and theboss knows [Magazine]. Business and Society Review, 108(3), 285-307. Retrieved from web.ebscohost.com

Katz, M. L. (2011, May). Social media navigating the legal perils. Industry Week, 260, 52-54. Retrieved from web.esbcohost.com

Phillips, L. (2008, January 24). Trusting staff to surfsensibly boosts morale. People Management, 14(2), 16. Retrieved from web.ebscohost.com

Poremba, S. M. (2008, September). Risky business managing the email security risk. Econtent, 31(7), 40-44. Retrieved from web.ebscohost.com

Read my e-mail get a warrant [Magazine]. (2012, Jan). Scientific American, 306(1), 12. doi:web.ebscohost.com

Sipior, J. C., & Ward, B. T. (1999, July). The dark side of employee email. Communications of the ACM, 42(7), 88-95. Retrieved from web.ebscohost.com

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