No, it isn’t paranoia. According to a workplace privacy poll conducted last year, 72 percent of all organizations occasionally or frequently monitor employee Internet use, and 70 percent occasionally or frequently monitor computer use.

E-mail, the Web and online journaling undoubtedly have advanced the workplace in myriad ways. In addition, however, they’ve also created further Attention Deficit-Disorder and enabled easier slacking and inefficiency for a certain type of employee — the type who goes online to play games, shop, frequently check personal e-mail, download music, instant message friends, pay bills and perhaps even search for another job — all while he or she should be working. This breed of employee is [pause for suspense]: the cyberslacker.

And, for the most part, the cyberslacker is the catalyst for your now-Orwellian Big Brother big boss monitoring everything you do online or on the phone while you busily do your job at the office.

According to a workplace privacy poll conducted in January 2005 by the Society for Human Resource Management and careerjournal.com, 72 percent of all organizations occasionally or frequently monitor employee Internet use, and 70 percent occasionally or frequently monitor computer use.

Similar, the 2005 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance survey by the American Management Association (AMA) and ePolicy Institute found that 55 percent of employers store and review e-mail messages. (This survey found a higher percentage — 76 — of employers monitor and review Web sites visited, compared with the survey by the Society for Human Resource and careerjournal.com.)

If you access your personal e-mail account at, say, AOL or Yahoo, through your work computer, your boss may well monitor that e-mail, a recent Newsday article stated.

Likewise instant messaging, as well as other Web pages you visit.

The AMA and ePolicy Institute survey found half (50 percent) of employers save and review employees’ computer files and 36 percent monitor time employees spend on computer, content and keystrokes entered.

Employers can track your keystrokes, so they can tell what words you’ve typed — even if you delete them. As well, although you may delete a file or e-mail, it still is likely recoverable. Heck, even if you access your work server from your home computer, your keystrokes can sell you out, as those keystrokes too can be monitored.

Further, to ensure proper computer/Internet use and have documented proof of employee actions, many companies monitor computer activity with applications and devices that flag suspicious e-mail, chat room conversations and Web browsing. Some filtering software prevents employees from accessing certain Web sites, such as those deemed pornographic.

The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 — amended in 2001 — gives what privacy experts call pretty much carte blanche, noted Newsday.

“The computer system is the property of the employer and as such the employer has the right to monitor Internet activity and e-mail,” according to Nancy Flynn, executive director of the ePolicy Institute in Columbus, Ohio. “Employees should have no reasonable expectation to privacy.”

Blogs, however, are slightly different. Employers still have a bit to learn about blog monitoring applications; as well, they have to become more familiar with blog search engines — such as Technorati and Blogpulse — wherein they can plug the names of companies, company executives and products to find out just what is being said of them. Blogs “open up the business to all of the same risks posed by e-mails [sic.] and instant messaging and Internet use,” said Flynn.

Of course, as we’ve made note, problems do arise when personal activity on the work computer affects employee productivity. However, employers also are concerned about employees inadvertently breaching corporate security or privacy through personal computer use: Web sites and pop-up ads may have spyware that can infiltrate a company’s computer network; and spam, or unsolicited e-mail, can carry computer viruses or worms that can paralyze networks. As a result, many employers establish strict-to-lenient-ranging computer-use policies.

Usually, companies consider computer misuse as grounds for termination. Half of nearly 300 employers responding to the Society for Human Resources Management survey said they have fired or disciplined employees for Internet use unrelated to job duties. Indeed, employees across the nation have been fired for criticizing their company, disclosing confidential information or offending their supervisors in online journals or blogs — on top of which, in critical e-mail messages or online journals or blogs that were authored while the employee was at work.

Some employers disclose the extent of such computer policing; others do not. Only employers in Connecticut and Delaware are required to notify they’re being monitored.

Although employee-monitoring organizations are not wholly without justification, bosses probably should be more sensitive to employees’ privacy concerns. But employees, too, should ask questions; they should inquire about computer-use policy beyond the contents of the employee handbook.

(Although we’re not positive as to how, we’re pretty sure the cyberslacker is to blame for all of this.)

We conclude with Monster Blog‘s comment on the topic:

There probably isn’t an immediate need to panic […] But keeping these stats in mind as you peruse the Web in your downtime is probably not a bad idea — at least until we figure out a way to balance out employers’ hyper-security sensitivity with our need for privacy.

References

2005 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey: Many Companies Monitoring, Recording, Videotaping—and Firing — Employees
Corp. announcement/press release
American Management Association (AMA), May 18, 2005

Yes, the boss is…watching
by Patricia Kitchen
Newsday, Feb. 19, 2006

Watch Out! Big (Boss) is Watching
by Maya
Monster Blog, June 15, 2005