Privacy and Your Job: Whose Business is it anyway?
By MedZilla Staff Writer
Marysville, WA - November 7, 2003--Businesses that monitor
their employees—whether with cameras in the workplace, taping
phone conversations, or tracking employee e-mail and Internet
activities—might be accused of being Big Brother. Yet many
are turning to tools that allow at least occasional surveillance
of the workforce. The reason, explains Timothy A. Dimoff, president
of SACS Consulting and Investigative Services, Inc., is that “one
of the biggest thefts taking place in corporate America today
is theft of time and because of that, just like any other crime
or waste or inadequacy, you have to fix it.”
Monitoring, however, doesn’t have to be a turn-off in the
workplace, and experts offer several ways that employers can monitor
their employees without losing their respect or loyalty.
Monitoring today: its benefits and pitfalls
Issues with employee monitoring have changed. Elizabeth Ahearn,
president and CEO Radclyffe Group, Whippany, NJ, a training and
consulting firm that helps companies deliver world-class service
through their call centers, remembers a time when corporate legal
departments shunned employee monitoring for fear that employees
might claim privacy invasion. But the argument eventually won
out in the courts that employees had no reasonable expectation
of privacy in the workplace.
Technological advances have also changed the way corporations
view privacy, says Jim Harper, editor of Privacilla.org, a Web-based
think tank devoted to privacy. While some compare e-mail monitoring
to phone surveillance, the two are very different. E-mails, he
says, have much more potential to reach broad audiences and, therefore,
do more damage to a company. It’s almost a matter of good
judgment that today’s employers have some sort of e-mail
monitoring in place, he says.
However, monitoring can go too far, such as when cameras are
found in bathrooms and employers attempt to time bathroom breaks.
“I’ve worked in places where about half the company
was involved with watching the other half. It creates paranoia,
suspicion and doesn’t make for very comfortable working conditions,”
says Frank Heasley, PhD, the President and CEO of MedZilla.com,
a leading Internet recruitment and professional community that
serves biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and science.
Monitoring without crossing the line and alienating employees
is a matter of good judgment, Harper says. “Employees want
to know there is monitoring but don’t want to have the feeling
that someone is looking over their shoulders.”
Monitoring for the right reasons
At issue with monitoring is the debate over providing better
security and safety for employees, versus doing it to harass or
intimidate them. Employee perception about why a business is monitoring
them is critical, says Dimoff, whose company advises corporations
regarding workplace litigation, conflict and crime.
Dr. Heasley says employers should have a reason to monitor. “Unless
you have cause, you should not go digging around. But, sometimes,
a business’s health or survival depends on the employer monitoring
employees. If, for example, you have good reason to suspect that
someone who is working for you is working for a competitor, undermining
your business, damaging morale or conspiring against you, then
it is your obligation to uncover the wrongdoing.”
Ahearn agrees, saying that a balance exists between watching
and building trust. “Every employee needs to be dealt with
as an individual, as opposed to creating group rules for the few
that will take advantage,” she says. “If a person is
meeting their goals, deadlines or doing a great job, why should
employers worry if they spend some time on the Internet?”
Dimoff disagrees and suggests businesses conduct monitoring across
the board, with everyone subject to equal watching. This treats
employees equally, while catching those who take advantage of
the work environment.
Don't be sneaky
The first step in a successful monitoring campaign is to tell
employees that they are being or might be watched. Employers should
notify employees of this as early as in the job interview; then,
have them sign a document that records their knowledge of being
monitored.
Other things employers should do before monitoring employees
are:
- Educate employees about the types of monitoring that you do
and explain the reasons for the monitoring. Present the monitoring
issue in a “what’s-in-it-for-them” format. By arming
employees with facts about at-work e-mail abuse and the understanding
that the monitoring is for the success of the company, they will
be much more likely to accept it as part of the job.
- Make sure that employees understand that all the equipment
at work is company-owned and, therefore, while they are at work,
they have no reasonable expectation of privacy at all times.
Understand that monitoring does not have to be all bad—and
shouldn’t be. Monitoring can also be used to commend employees
on handling customer service issues well or making good decisions.
-Don’t overuse surveillance devices. Video cameras, Ahearn
says, typically should be used for employee safety—not to
see who is stealing out of the mailroom.
Keep the proper perspective
Dimoff reminds employers that monitoring will not solve the problem
of bad management. Fear is not the way to inspire people to work;
motivation with incentives is.
“…some forward thinking employers actually encourage
their employees to use employer resources to get degrees, connect
with their kids, and do their travel planning from work,”
says Nan Andrews Amish, a business strategist with Big Picture
Healthcare (www.bigpicturehealthcare.com), El Granada, Calif.
Dr. Heasley points out that “Once started, corporate paranoia
can be difficult to curb. Companies who believe their employees
are untrustworthy often create an environment of distrust that
provokes the very behavior that they are trying to avoid.”
About MedZilla.com
Established in 1994, MedZilla is the original Web site to
serve career and hiring needs for professionals and employers
in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, science and healthcare.
MedZilla databases contain about 10,000 open positions, 13,000
resumes from candidates actively seeking new positions and 50,000
archived resumes. These resources have been characterized as the
largest, most comprehensive databases of their kind on the Web
in the industries served.
