- Phones and Closed Circuit Cameras:
Traditional “eavesdropping” methods such as listening in on an employee’s phone call are still common practice in many organisations. Storing and reviewing voice mail and video-recording employees actions on the job is still a very effective way of monitoring employee behaviour (American Management Association, 2003).
Companies generally engage in monitoring practices for a number of different reasons such as: performance review, legal compliance, legal liability, and productivity measures (Greenberg, 2000).
In terms of the availability of workplace surveillance software all one needs to do is make a simple web query (“workplace surveillance software”/ “desktop monitoring”), which will present a host available programs that can be easily installed on any system. The fact that there are numerous surveillance programs on the market has created a great deal of competition, which in turn drives prices down and creates value for the consumer.
An example of one of the most popular surveillance programs is SSPPYY, which can be remotely installed from anywhere in the world. SSPPYY contains almost all of the surveillance and logging features that one may require for computer monitoring. Some of these features include:
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Internet Conversation Logging - Log both sides of all chat and instant message conversations for AOL/ICQ/MSN/AIM/Yahoo Instant Messengers.
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Email Recording - All web-based emails are automatically recorded and saved for your later review.
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Window Activity Logging - Capture information on every window that was viewed and interacted with.
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Application Activity Logging- Track every application/executable that was executed and interacted with.
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Printed Documents Logging - Log specific information on all documents that were sent to the printer spool.
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Keystroke Monitoring - Track all keystrokes pressed (including hidden system keys) and which windows they were pressed in. Keystrokes can also be passed through a formatter for easy viewing/exporting.
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Websites Activity Logging - Log all website titles and addresses that were visited on the PC.
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Screen Shot Capture- SSPPYY can capture up to one screenshot per second or every number of minutes.
Despite its frequent and effective use, workplace surveillance has raised quite a few concerns among different areas of the public. Privacy is the main issue in question, many employees feel as though their rights have been violated with such intrusion in their everyday lives. This has been an area of constant debate ever since workplace surveillance was first introduced, even today there is doubt as to whether specific aspects of workplace surveillance are considered legal or not.
Last year, a well-known newspaper fired twenty-three employees for sending distasteful jokes through email (Segan, 2003). The company said the firings were necessary to maintain a harassment-free workplace. In spite of this there is a fine line between what is regarded as appropriate or inappropriate in an employee email. Consider the word “breast”, if it is in reasonable proximity to “chicken”, there is likely no problem, if it is in reasonable proximity to other words, it might not be so good.
Privacy is an issue that affects not only employees but also prospective employees. Many companies require credit reports and engage in detailed public record searches on applicants before extending employment offers. This could be considered an invasion of privacy but according to reports, no legal protection is available to job seekers denied employment because they refused to submit a credit report (Glasner, 2003).
In the United States, courts tend to favour the employer in workplace surveillance cases. For that reason, it is suggested employees should always use good judgement when logging on to the Internet and sending emails.
While worker privacy is clearly ‘one of’ the major issues in electronic monitoring, it does not seem a broad enough concept to fully encompass the relationships involved. One of the difficulties with conceptualising workplace surveillance as a privacy issue is that it frames individuals as having an assumed set of rights as participants in a free and equal contract arrangement, and does not account for the power relations implied in the labour contract (Regan, 1993). If or when workplace monitoring is changed or intensified, the concept of privacy invites consideration of workers as individuals with personal dignity concerns, rather than focusing on the changing nature of or increase in worker exploitation which may be occurring (Regan, 1993).
Privacy is not the only area of alarm in workplace surveillance, some very specific concerns that have arisen as a result of monitoring are that it may lead to:
- ever-increasing work quotas;
- declining worker morale;
- work standards that may be inappropriate;
- punitive use of the data collected by employers; and
- stress and related health issues that arise from both the sense of being constantly watched and the increased pressure to work at high speed.
Monitoring impacts both the moral of project teams and the “esprit de corps” of entire corporations. It creates individual goals, which discourage workers from working towards team goals and helping their co-workers to achieve these goals (Worklife Report, 2001).
Working under pressure produces stress in workers. Electronic monitoring exerts pressure to perform, which makes working under such conditions wearing on employee mental health.
As on the job stress increases, the physical as well as health of workers suffers. Physical health may be impacted as a consequence of stress, or due to other factors related to monitoring.
Having discussed some of the negatives that result from surveillance in the workplace, there are also positives that arise from its use. Employers believe that monitoring is justified for a number of reasons:
1) Productivity can be a casualty when employees have easy access to the Internet and all its distractions. Unlimited Internet use can tie up network resources and force employers to go to the expense of adding more bandwidth in order to cope.
2) Harassment and hostile work environment law suits can proliferate if an employee sends a harassing email or views a pornographic/inappropriate web site on their computer in sight of other employees. Employers can also face potential lawsuits if an employee uploads, downloads, or otherwise abuses copyrighted materials, such as those available through file sharing networks.
3) There is the fear that unmonitored and misused email programs can allow trade secrets and other important information to leak out into the eye of the public.
The technology and infrastructure associated with workplace surveillance is greatly dependent on the workplace at hand and what they hope to achieve. In general the organisation will have computers operating on a network, which enables them to be monitored easily and without the worker knowing. In addition, video cameras and the recording of telephone conversations is common practice among many organisations.
Workplace surveillance is here to stay. Regardless of the criticism it may receive, workplace surveillance is something that we must learn to live with and perhaps one day even accept that it is doing more good than harm in the long term.
Having discussed the various methods of workplace surveillance currently available and the issues associated with their use, it is clear to see that the monitoring of employee’s will continue to grow in the future. This is the result of fierce competition in the area of technology and in particular surveillance, which is ideal for employers as it keeps costs to minimum.
Despite the potential obstacles, protection from increasingly intensive electronic surveillance of employees must be sought. At some point in the near future, more comprehensive regulation of workplace surveillance may be necessary and appropriate. This is particularly so since legislation is probably the only measure that would provide protection for each and every employee workers, including those not represented by organised labour.
Workplace surveillance technology itself is also an area of constant advancement, continuous progression and innovation creates an environment in which every aspect of an organisation and its members can be monitored.
