Monitoring of Employees : Ethical or Unethical?
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- Date Submitted: 12/01/2010 12:07 PM
- Pages: 10
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Monitoring Employees on Networks : Unethical or Good Business?
- Excessive use of internet (speed of light) ( use of email and the Web for personal business at the workplace.
- Management problems due to this :-
1.Creates a series of nonstop interruptions tht divert employee attention from the job tasks they are supposed to be performing.
Can take up to 28% of average U.S. worker’s day ( $650 billion in lost productivity each year.
2. Interruptions are not necessarily work-related.
Atleast 25% of employee online time is spent on non-work related Web surfing, and perhaps as many as 90% employees receive or send personal email at work.
Manager’s worry :-
-loss of time
-loss of productivity
As employees are focusing on personal rather than company business
-lost revenue or overbilled clients
-some employees may be charging time they spend trading their personal stocks online or pursuing other personal business to clients, thus overcharging the clients.
-If personal traffic on company networks is too high, it can clog the company’s network so that legitimate business work cannot be performed.
Eg : an architecture firm in Omaha, Nebraska, and Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge, Virginia, found their computing resources were limited by a lack of bandwidth caused by employees using corporate Internet connections to watch and download video files.
-Anything illegal that the employees do (using web, email at employer facilities or with employer equipment), it carries the companies name ( employer can be traced and held liable.
Management in many firms fear that racist, sexually explicit, or other potentially offensive material accessed or traded by their employees ( result in adverse publicity or even lawsuits for the firm.
Even if firm is not found guilty, responding to lawsuits could cost the company tens of thousands of dollars.
- Companies also fear leakage of confidential information and trade secrets through email or blogs.
Eg – Ajax...
- Excessive use of internet (speed of light) ( use of email and the Web for personal business at the workplace.
- Management problems due to this :-
1.Creates a series of nonstop interruptions tht divert employee attention from the job tasks they are supposed to be performing.
Can take up to 28% of average U.S. worker’s day ( $650 billion in lost productivity each year.
2. Interruptions are not necessarily work-related.
Atleast 25% of employee online time is spent on non-work related Web surfing, and perhaps as many as 90% employees receive or send personal email at work.
Manager’s worry :-
-loss of time
-loss of productivity
As employees are focusing on personal rather than company business
-lost revenue or overbilled clients
-some employees may be charging time they spend trading their personal stocks online or pursuing other personal business to clients, thus overcharging the clients.
-If personal traffic on company networks is too high, it can clog the company’s network so that legitimate business work cannot be performed.
Eg : an architecture firm in Omaha, Nebraska, and Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge, Virginia, found their computing resources were limited by a lack of bandwidth caused by employees using corporate Internet connections to watch and download video files.
-Anything illegal that the employees do (using web, email at employer facilities or with employer equipment), it carries the companies name ( employer can be traced and held liable.
Management in many firms fear that racist, sexually explicit, or other potentially offensive material accessed or traded by their employees ( result in adverse publicity or even lawsuits for the firm.
Even if firm is not found guilty, responding to lawsuits could cost the company tens of thousands of dollars.
- Companies also fear leakage of confidential information and trade secrets through email or blogs.
Eg – Ajax...