Christine Angulo
Nowadays it is very common for organizations to have employees use a computer and the Internet to complete work. It's also not unusual for employees after many hours of
tedious work to stray away from work goals and tasks and nonchalantly
begin to surf the many pages of the Internet so as to check personal
emails, visit social networking sites, play games, and watch videos,
etc. Companies would rather not have employees do these things and are taking action. Are you aware about how much of this activity and information is
being tracked and what employers can do about it?
According to a 2007 survey by the
American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute,
about 66% of employers regularly monitor the web activity of their
employees, and almost all of these companies have implemented
software to block certain sites (anything pertaining to romantic,
sexual, pornographic content, gaming sites, social networking,
shopping/auction sites, sports pages etc) from being accessed.
Thirty percent of the companies surveyed have also claimed to have
fired employees who misuse the Internet at work and another 28% have
fired employees for email misuse at work. Are these monitoring and
termination activities justified?
Companies usually have official
policies that describe what, where, how and when an employee is being
monitored and the regulations surrounding Internet use at work, but
sometimes the lines can be a bit fuzzy. For example, although you may
know that your employer is not okay with you visiting and posting to
Facebook and Twitter while at work, do you know the company's policy
(if there is one) regarding what you post outside of work? Some
companies are going so far as to demand that employees and potential
hirees provide their login information to monitor their activity on
social media sites. Do you think that this is a violation of privacy?
When, if any, do you believe that this would be a necessary procedure
for a company to implement? Should there be legislation to protect
the employee's privacy or legislation to protect the company from
potential damage by the employee?
I agree that employers should have a right to monitor your Internet usage while you are at work as well as what you say about them when you are not at work, if it will be made public. However, an employer has NO right to ask you for your login credentials whatsoever, expecially your password!!!
ReplyDeleteI know people at work who have been spoken to about their posts online and I know there are a couple of people that are routinely watched for their comments. I can't imagine being asked for my username/password and can't think of a reason why they'd need it. As for the privacy legislation, it's a good thing but how necessary is it really? I read an HR article that said 90% of the stuff that gets people fired are things that the people made public.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that certain jobs should require their employees not to post anything negative about their work environment. For example, if an employee with a high credential status in the company posted negative comments about their employer on Twitter, this could cause a terrible perception about the workplace and affect the job performance of other employees. I do not believe that companies have the right to ask for your personal login information.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely agree that companies do not have the right to ask for your username and password. The only case I could see this being necessary in any case- is if there was an incident involving someone else in the office that led to a fatal situation or investigation of a crime. Legislation is absolutely required to protect employees from exploitation.
ReplyDeleteI will be honest, I check my personal email at work sometimes only when I am waiting for a grade to be posted. I am not patient enough to wait till I get home. I don't think it's harming anyone. It's a one-minute check and I am still able to get all my work done.
ReplyDeleteL. Dorenfeld, I agree I would never give the company my username or password. That is a breach of privacy. I think if companies keep harassing their employees for their usernames and passwords then legislation should be passed to protect us.
It seems like everyone here agrees that employers should not be able to ask for their employee's personal social networking login information....it's a pretty big breach of privacy and in my opinion gives the employer too much control over something that isn't their property. Plus, who would want to work for a company with bogus policies like that? Not me!
ReplyDeleteI admit that I partake in some web surfing while at work every now and then, and still I support companies that monitor and track their employee's internet usage if it occurs on their property (like an office computer) because there are some people who ruin privileges like that for everyone and those people need to be caught, warned, stopped if it gets too far, etc.
I think we just need to find a happy medium where employees are able to have some flexibility and internet downtime every so often at work...a person can only be so productive before burning out without a break from a long and monotonous shift.
I know that at my work social media sites and personal email accounts are blocked, so that it eliminates the need and desire to check on work time. However, I will check my personal email on my phone periodically throughout the day, but never would I provide my user name or password to any company that I work for. There is no need for them to have access to that information. It is a breach of privacy that I am not comfortable with.
ReplyDelete