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Electronic monitoring technology
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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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In Fitbit for Bosses written by Lynn Stuart Parramore she talks about how bosses want to start monitoring their employees. Parramore shows her discomfort with this idea. She thinks that “big money seems poised to trump privacy”(Parramore). Which basically just means that for bosses is that money is over everything even privacy. Allowing bosses to monitor their employees is dishonest and manipulating.Some researchers have also found out that increasing surveillance has caused the decrease of productivity. Researchers warned them that the data can have big errors and people that look at the data that the fitbits can cherry-pick the information that supports their beliefs and ditch the rest of the information that leads to racial profiling. “Surveillance makes everyone seem suspicious, creating perceptions and expectations of dishonesty.” Workers will become dehumanized“(Parramore), it prevents them from experimenting and exercising the creativity on the job.” A woman from California filed a suit against her former employer because he forced her to to install a tracking app on her phone. She had to have it on her phone 24/7 or else she would
Cep and Ross both agree that the Internet is a necessity. Cep states, “we not only love and socialize online but live and work there too. (Cep 1)” In this statement she is showing the obvious reasons that people use the internet. The internet isn’t used only for social aspects but for work obligations too. She goes on to quote the Pope, “The digital environment is not a parallel or purely virtual world but is part of the daily experience of many people, especially the young. (2)” This quote shows that everyone in the world realizes the necessity of the internet. Even the Pope understands and discusses its value. Ross too reiterates the importance of the internet. One quote that really drilled it home was this, “And now that going online is a part of everyday life.. (Ross 3)” A quote couldn’t exemplify the Internets necessity any more. In another source titled “Mobile And More Productive? Firm-Level Evidence On The Productivity Effects Of Mobile Internet Use” by Irene Bertschek and Thomas Niebel it is discussed that the necessity for the internet exceeds just computer access. It shows that having the internet at all times, via mobile phones, is also important. In this article they state, “The econometric analysis shows that firms ' labour productivity significantly increases with the share of employees with mobile internet access. (Bertschek and Niebel 1)” This really puts an emphasis on how important the internet can really be. Having work access to it at all times, even while at home, can improve
Permanent in a route, of the person having more than the extreme usage of the internet, can lead them to having anxiety. Anxiety, of not obtaining their phone within the range of time in an hour, minutes, or even seconds. In the article, “Introduction to the Internet” written by Jack Lasky. Lasky demonstrates how the change of having the opportunity to interact with one another has involved, “Internet has irrevocably changed the way people interact and the world at large” (Lasky 1). Describing how the internet has formed thousands of people on the way they communicate with one another. For example, few years ago people will meet up, have a civil conversation in person. Now a days, people would rather communicate via internet, whether it be email, text, through messaging apps, or entertainment apps. They are taking the easier route, than having a conversation not in person. Having in mind, this is a negative outcome as well. Its excluding themselves from the outside world, and making themselves become more isolated. Not knowing this can also include negative outcomes at work. People who work, can become exhausted at the usage of the internet there consuming on the daily, which can affect them by the absence of
Social media is a new phenomenon for most companies; it has also greatly affected the workplace. The influxes of technology combine with the availability of mobile devices have changed private moments and thoughts shared in the workplace. “Employees' workplace privacy is being invaded by increased use of social media, according to a survey published today by security software firm AVG technologies” Newcombe, T...
Over the past fifteen years, the use of social media by both the general public and by the business world has expanded dramatically. Social media is one of a number of social technologies - any technological device or technique that can be used to facilitate communication between individuals. Social technology includes everything from the telephone to Wikipedia. Social media, on the other hand, is the use of media platforms which were specifically create to connect users with other users and give them a peak into each other's lives by allowing them exchange information, messages, ideas, pictures, and other personal communication. However, it’s been known to abuse this rapidly growing technology.
Computers, tablets, cellphones and all modern tenchnology has decrease our expectations of privacy in this digital age. People don't care anyone for their privacy, they only want the benefits that modern technology has brought to them. In the essay, “Privacy is Overrated” by David Plotz (2003), argues that it is sometimes good to be open and not be bother by privacy. In Jack Shafer's (2010) essay, “The Invasion of the Cookie Monster” he argues that we are the ones to be blame for the lost of our online privacy. The didgital age has created an extremely big problem of privacy for people.
A. M. Kaplan and M. Haenlein, ‘Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media’, Business Horizons, vol. 53, no. 1, 2010, pp. 59-68.
Employee Monitoring: Is There Privacy in the Workplace? . (6/3/2004)
One type of surveillance is employee monitoring. Many employers monitor their workers’ activities for one reason or another. Companies monitor employees using many methods. They may use access panels that requires employees to identify themselves to control entry to various area in the building, allowing them to create a log of employee movements. They may also use software to monitor attendance and work hours. Additionally, many programs allows companies to monitor activities performed on work computers, inspect employee emails, log keystrokes, etc. An emerging methods of employee monitor also include social network and search engine monitoring. Employers can find out who their employees are associated with, as well as other potentially incriminating information. (Ciocchetti)
Sanvenero, Richard. "Social Media And Our Misconceptions Of The Realities." Information & Communications Technology Law22.2 (2013): 89-108. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
During the past decade, the internet has revolutionized and changed the way organizations do business by offering rapid communication systems and enhanced information access and innovation of technological advancements have created a brave new workplace. Further, the internet enables organizations to decrease expenses, reduce product life cycle time, market goods and services more efficiently (Anandarajan et al, 2000). However, with these kinds of benefits, the internet provides employees with a technique
You get to work, login, check your email, and examine the values of your stocks. Have you done something wrong? Should your manager care about what you do with those couple of minutes? Hypothetically, if you consider 48 working days per year, with 40 hours per weeks (totally 9,600 hours of work a year), then the daily five minutes of personal internet usage mounts to approximately 24 hours (three working days) of wasted company time. In a capitalist economy, such inefficiency impedes the goal to maximize profit; therefore, compelling businesses to turn to rigorous surveillance to discourage inappropriate use of company resources and to promote productivity. As the American legislative and judicial culture has generally upheld companies’ proprietary rights to monitor their employees at the expense of employees’ privacy, civil libertarians have protested to what they claim to be direct violation of the employees’ right to privacy, which the First, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment implicitly guarantee.
Ivarsson, Lars Larsson, Patrik. "Personal Internet Usage At Work: A Source Of Recovery." Journal Of Workplace Rights 16.1 (2011): 63. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
One particular crime that could be committed by employees who use the internet at work is hacking. Hacking is one of the most well-known types of computer crimes, in this context, the term refers to the unauthorized access of another’s computer system (HG.org Staff, 2015). This means that if the employee in not allowed to use the internet, for personal use, than there is a possibility that they could get charged for such crime. Because the policy will state they do not have the authority to access the organizations computer system for personal use. In addition, they must know that all use of computers systems while at work will be monitor, including e-mails. Piracy and cyber terrorism are other crimes that one can face when using a computer
In job settings, distractions caused by cell phones and internet surfing have a negative impact on overall productivity Employees fail to provide quality customer service and are unable to complete their daily assignments (Laroya). This has a negative impact on the overall economy. This lack of productivity has forced businesses to change the way that they operate. People are being replaced with machines because of their lackadaisical approach to personal interaction and communications (Nilles). The end result of this decreased productivity presents a negative impact on our overall economy.