I See What You Did There…
The way we work and manage employees in the workplace has altered due to new technology; to be more specific, surveillance and monitoring equipment and abilities.
This has been a topic of controversy in the last decade as technology has grown so advanced.
Increasingly, attacks, robberies, violence, workplace mishaps, other workplace safety issues, and associated liabilities and damages provide motivation for employers to monitor the workplace.
Not only is safety an issue, but employee productivity has sadly proven itself to be a key factor. The survey found that Canadian employees with Internet access at work averaged eight hours online per week, of which at least two hours were for personal reasons. Another survey claimed that 25% of employees admitted spending 10-30 minutes each workday surfing non-related work sites. A further 22% admitted spending 30-60 minutes each workday surfing non-related work sites. Astonishingly, 12% admitted spending one to two hours and 13% admitted spending more than two hours each workday surfing Internet sites unrelated to their jobs. In 2000, the Angus Reid Group reported that Canadian employees spent about 800 million work hours each year on personal Internet use.
Hearing these statistics, it feels reasonable for employers to support implementation of higher level surveillance. I do not think it is reasonable for employees to be performing at this level. It is shocking.
However, with this comes surveillance of your every move.
The problem that exists here is that employees have certain rights to privacy and the monitoring of every single action made may be a violation of that. In North America, we live in a society where ethics holds great importance, especially in the workplace. Therefore, privacy and personal space must be considered of the employees must be considered.
The issue is whether, and to what degree employees are entitled to privacy in the workplace.
Source:
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mccarthy.ca%2Fpubs%2FMonitoring_and_Surveillance.pdf&ei=6HX3TNLpHoj2tgP-oqSnAg&usg=AFQjCNGr9UPWbc1YS8wDUAf7QbOZHl7UlQ&sig2=nS7brsicjxvCypcC81oMig