ALT-7 Should Employers Monitor Employees Internet use – Yes
The number of people being fired and or disciplined due to their internet activities while at work has been rising rapidly over the last few years. However the debate as to whether this is an invasion of an employees rights is something that still divides many people. Some people feel that whatever an employee is doing while at work is the companies business, others feel however that privacy should be respected so long as they are doing their job.
Many employers can see no reason why they should not be free to see what someone in their employment is doing on company time. After all, both the computer, internet access and the electricity are being paid for by the company, and not the employee. As well as which, in most places, the employee is not supposed to use their computer for anything else other than work anyway.
Secondarily when people can access any sites that they want to, they are risking the company being exposed to numerous viruses and spy-ware. In the case of businesses, these can be particularly risky because of the fact that they will often go unnoticed for longer. This then gives them time to do more damage to the company, which costs them time and money or to steal information. When information is stolen, then the company very often has to conduct full investigations into what has been lost, which again can be costly.
In certain industries, employee internet use is strictly monitored due to the fact that some employees might leak company secrets to third parties. Which is done sometimes inadvertently and sometimes for their own benefit. This kind of thing is particularly prevalent when developing new products, or in the technology industries, where competition is very fierce. Often monitoring internet use can help to prevent these leaks, and can also help determine disloyal employees.
In many cases, the fact that an employee is using the internet is not actively punished unless some other aspect of their work is suffering. For example if someone consistently misses deadlines, but still finds the time to spend a hour per day on the internet checking the sports scores. In these cases, monitoring employee internet use can be advantageous, because it can provide actual evidence that they are wasting their time and not working.
A separate issue is that increasingly companies allow their workers to use their home computers to complete work, and some people even work exclusively from home. There are some employers who monitor their employees internet use through a network, even though the computer that they are using is their own and is sitting in their own home. Many people tend to be against this form of monitoring due to the fact that the employee is usually free to work whatever hours they need to complete their work, and aren't as such on the clock.
However the fact is that in many cases, even when infringements have been made, most employers don't ever bother to actually discipline their staff anyway. The fact that staff might be accessing the internet when they are on a lunch or coffee break, or even after and before work, means that most of them might be accessing non work sites at some point during the day. Because of this, proving that any infringement has actually taken place is often difficult, and simply not worth the employers time so long as everything is running smoothly.
The argument against monitoring your employees Internet use is basically down to privacy, and because the Internet has become such a big part of our lives. If you do monitor someone's activities you will likely see a lot of personal and private information that an employer shouldn't be privy to. For example their financial activities, their personal details such as where they live, what they like to do in their free time etc. This shouldn't be a factor in what an employer thinks about you, although can become one if they were to see it.
Overall employers should retain the right to monitor employees internet access when at work, however shouldn't be able to do so on any home computers, despite their use.the main point however is that the employees should be aware that monitoring is going on, and that it isn't being done secretly without them knowing, This way any sites that they do access, they know might well be made common knowledge if they do so at work.
