Published July 2004

Issues to ponder before
e-monitoring workers

Q. Our company provides employees with some of the most sophisticated, advanced electronic equipment to give them a distinct competitive advantage as they perform their jobs. Some senior executives are concerned that the power and scope of the company’s desktop computers and laptops, cell phones, PDAs, instant messaging and network servers inevitably will lead to abuses. They are urging the company to start an electronic monitoring program to preempt any improper use of company equipment. As director of human resources, I am resisting use of extensive monitoring as unnecessarily intrusive.

A. In today’s electronically connected world, there are no shortage of companies willing to sell programs that monitor employees’ every keystroke, every Web site visited, every e-mail sent and received, every telephone number called, every IM sent at the precise time and date.

Video cameras can record employee movements, including those of the rogue stealing office supplies, computer equipment or even towels from the corporate locker room. Hidden parabolic microphones can monitor even the most discreet conversations between employees, whether in the company lunchroom or the atrium between buildings.

Using such programs could easily allow a company to discover an employee using the office high-speed Internet access to run a side business on eBay during working hours. Or, a secretary sending an inordinate number of IMs to someone named “Snookums in Spokane.” It could nab a customer service representative using her manager’s outside calling access code to phone her grandmother three times daily only to learn the manager gave permission because granny was ill. (All are actual examples of monitoring discoveries.)

The temptation to convert company property to personal use has always been part of the business landscape, from the day employees were supplied paper and pencils, typewriters, fax machines and computers.

Although use of electronic monitoring programs is steadily increasing (a 2001 study found one-third of the estimated 40 million employees online have their e-mail and Internet use under constant surveillance), there remain powerful arguments against entering the slippery slope of employee spying.

Chief among them is there may be little need for it. Before embarking on such a program, employers need to ask:

• Are they merely reacting to an unhealthy dose of paranoia or will monitoring address specific needs such as protecting the security and safety of employees, combating sexual harassment or gaining evidence of suspected employee fraud, espionage and misbehavior?
• How will monitoring fit into the organization’s culture? A company dependent on a wide range of information sharing, communication, innovation and independence may well find monitoring may create more problems than it solves. A company, such as yours, that obviously values the productive value of providing the best equipment may find monitoring tells employees, “yes, but we don’t trust you.”
• Do you have sufficient personnel to monitor the monitoring? While programs can measure keystrokes to telephone calls, people must take the time to analyze the mountains of data monitoring creates. Despite the power and sophistication of such programs, employment lawyers say most complaints of employee abuse of e-equipment come from fellow employees.
• Have you told employees specifically how company-owned electronic devices can be used? While most employers have rules prohibiting private use of an organization’s vehicles and general office equipment, surveys show only half using electronic communication devices have written rules governing their use. Having such policies, fully acknowledged by employees and consistently enforced by employers, goes a long way toward stopping abuse before it occurs.

Eric Zoeckler operates The Scribe, a business writing service with many Snohomish County-based clients. He also writes a column on workplace issues that appears in The Herald on Mondays. He can be reached at 206-284-9566 or by e-mail to mrscribe@aol.com.

Back to the top/July 2004 Main Menu