watch your employees:
Usually, I would just pass on an article like this one that reports on the increase in the number of employers who restrict and monitor employee’s internet access. I don’t take kindly to the idea of someone reading my e-mail, and recording the content that I access - as long as my work is done, and I am not jeopardizing the company’s interests, I should be left alone. Today, however, I was forced to re-evaluate this position.
I heard about something that may at first seem anecdotal, but is in fact no laughing matter. A business associate of the family was recently forced to fire the entire staff (some 30 odd people) of his company. That may sound rather extreme, but the punishment fits the crime. About a month ago, an associate of our friend urged him to consider monitoring his employees’ e-mail and internet browsing. Initially, he declined to do so because he trusted his employees, and did not want to invade their privacy. His associate, however, persisted in his suggestion. Finally, with a certain degree of regret, he undertook to briefly examine how his staff were spending their time on the office computers.
I can only imagine the disbelief with which he must have been wrought when he discovered what his ‘trusted’ employees were up to. Following his shocking findings, he decided to continue to monitor and evaluate the online habits of his staff, in order to evaluate the context of what he had uncovered.
It came out that certain employees were sexually involved with several of his clients, some of the relationships were extramarital. The confidentiality of his business activities was shattered, as the employees relinquished information about business dealings with other clients. He was even betrayed by staff members whom he had tutored, and assisted financially. He found that a few employees had been using the office as their personal HR center, sending out their resumes to anyone with an e-mail account, or fax number; that whenever he left the office, or someone spotted him on the way to the office, messages were transmitted amongst the workers that the ‘bird had flown’, or was ‘incoming.’ The receptionist was visiting tens of porn sites a day, and many other workers spent the majority of their time at work on personal e-mail or mindless web-browsing. Imagine how rumors of these activities have damaged the reputations and interests of his company, and those of clients, over the years.
After informing the clients that may have been affected by what had been going on, and unable to trust a single one of his employees, he terminated all their contracts, and is now in the process of taking on new staff. I think he is as inconvenienced as he is disgusted. Over a number of years he has tried to develop healthy working relationships with all of his staff, only to be kicked in the teeth. A very sad state of affairs indeed. I’m not sure if he will continue to monitor the activities of his new staff, on a permanent basis, or even spontaneously. Cases like this are more likely to be the exception to the rule, especially in more developed societies where corruption and greed are not omnipresent. Notably, this case demonstrates that the application of monitoring policies can in fact be rooted in the business interests of company and client, more so than the stereotype of sadistic managers grasping at the straws of modern technology to assert and maintain control over workers.
