To spy or not to spy on employees' personal Web use
By Lisette Hilton
Marysville, WA - April 25, 2003-- Employers are divided
on whether and how much they should monitor, track and control
employees' personal Web use. Some employers closely watch employees
and take the stand that employees who use the Web for personal
reasons on company time should be disciplined and eventually fired.
Others would rather let their employees surf to their hearts content-as
long as they're performing on the job.
Let 'em surf (within reason)
The Big Brother approach is a turn-off for employees, says Frank
Heasley, PhD, president and CEO of MedZilla.com, a leading Internet
recruitment and professional community that targets jobseekers
and HR professionals in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare
and science. "Excessive monitoring of employees' Internet
activities is damaging for morale. It signals that the employer
doesn't trust its staff, and it sends the message that the employer
thinks that any activity that cannot be directly attributed to
'work' is simply goofing off," he says. "Freedom of
thought is a fundamental human right. Unwarranted restriction
or surveillance of Internet access comes very close to being a
serious infringement on that right, is certainly demotivating,
and ultimately will stifle creativity and damage productivity."
Dr. Heasley admits there is a place-even for monitoring. If there
is good evidence to warrant suspicion of a specific employee or
group, then Internet monitoring is an effective and necessary
tool in protecting an employer's interests, he says.
Employers should treat employees as adults who have rights to
their own privacy, says Beverly Kaye, EdD, CEO and founder Career
Systems International, a talent solution consulting company, and
co-author of the book Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People
to Stay.
Dr. Kaye does not recommend monitoring employees' Web use. She
suggests that employers and managers who are concerned rather
make it clear that company time is not meant for doing personal
tasks on the Web. Leaders should tell employees why this is so,
detailing costs, etc. However, management should also allow for
flexibility should an employee need to go to a Web site to take
care of personal business during the work shift.
"I know that it can be very upsetting to an employer to
know that your employees are using time this way. I know that
the most popular time to use job boards is during the day,"
Dr. Kaye says. "I think that is symptomatic of another problem
if it is job boards that they're going to, and managers should
be aware."
Bosses that have workplaces in which employees don't have enough
to do so they waste their time surfing the Web have bigger problems
than Internet usage, says Rick Maurer, author of the book What
don't you want What I Want? about why people resist ideas and
what can be done about it.
Maurer suggests that employers ignore extracurricular Web use
if the employees are doing their jobs well. In addition, if employees
are not delivering, "it's a performance problem and deal
with a performance problem," he says. "The truth of
the matter is that there will be people who abuse it, but they'll
abuse other things too. When you create a personnel policy to
get the small percentage that are doing something wrong you insult
the loyalty and intelligence of the other 95%."
Middle ground
Perhaps, different situations warrant different approaches. "Management
should only resort to monitoring if there is a performance issue
with someone surfing on numerous occasions. If it continues to
be a problem, the employee should have a counseling session about
it. Monitoring would be warranted after the counseling to see
if that rectified the situation. If not, a written warning should
be given and the monitoring would be continued. If the surfing
has stopped, so should the monitoring," says Steve Wood,
a manager for more than 25 years and author of the book Stop 'Em
From Leaving, techniques for reducing employee turnover.
Ben Leichtling, PhD, who coaches executives and consults on employee
productivity and motivation, says companies need to ask themselves
how much surfing of what sites is OK and when does it turn into
a negative, as well as how much monitoring is good and when does
it turn into a negative. ("I'm leaving out spreading porn,
harassment, setting up a separate employee business on company
time and with company equipment.")
He recalls one tech company where there was so much surfing and
streaming (stock, music, porn) that it affected available bandwidth
and productivity. While trying to figure out why available bandwidth
was so decreased, the company stumbled upon a few individuals
who were way out of bounds. The company chose to deal with it
mostly as a productivity issue. According to Dr. Leichtling, they
resolved the problems with those people and did not institute
general surveillance.
"While the arguments for spying seem rational and technology
makes spying more feasible, it decreases productivity, is a prescription
for disaster and, most important, is the wrong way to approach
the issue," he says. "The issue is really about hiring,
training, motivating and retaining good (great) employees and
dealing with a few abusers and 'rotten apples.' Don't waste productive
employees' energy focusing on spying.
Some things can't be ignored
The one time when having a policy about Web use and possibly
monitoring Web use is critical is when it comes to employees'
accessing inappropriate content, such as pornography or discriminating
materials.
Patricia S. Eyres, attorney at law and professional speaker and
consultant on legal issues, says that companies should not only
adopt policies that address employee Web use but also be sure
to follow them consistently. Employees that go to inappropriate
Web sites can create hostile work environments for fellow employees
if they send the photos or messages or display them in the workplace.
While she is an advocate of monitoring inappropriate personal
Web use, Eyres recommends more leniency when it comes to other
uses, such as online shopping, checking sports, news or stocks.
Still, if a company is going to allow any personal use to appropriate
but nonbusiness sites, like personal shopping, they need to enforce
consistent guidelines. Consistency is the key, she says. "The
great temptation for supervisors is when they have a star employee,
they overlook personal usage because they know they're getting
their work done anyway [and they discipline employees who are
just hanging by their fingernails for violating Web policy],"
Eyres says.
Inconsistent treatment of employees cannot only be a morale but
also a legal problem for employers, Eyres adds.
Employers should have formal Internet and email policies, says
Rita Risser, a California attorney and CEO of Fair Measures, a
company that provides legal training for managers.
The policy should work with the company's antiharassment policy.
For example, when addressing "inappropriate" use, the
Internet policy might refer to the company's definition of "inappropriate"
in the company's antiharassment policy.
The company should require employees either not to use the work
computer for personal use or say that employees can only have
"reasonable personal use," she says. "Reasonable
doesn't have to be defined but usually is understood. Checking
stock quotes or personal email for 10 to 15 minutes a day might
not be a problem, while five hours spent, playing games on the
Web would be a big problem.
While written policies tend to protect companies, some types
of tracking might not only hurt morale but also create legal problems
for employers, Risser says. If an employer states that it monitors
outgoing emails and a fellow employee gets an inappropriate or
offensive email from another employee, the recipient can blame
the company for not blocking the email. "In a situation of
harassing emails being sent, the employer is liable under the
harassment laws if it knew or should have known the harassment
was occurring," Risser says.
Whether companies look the other way or monitor their employees'
internet use, they should do it in a way that preserves employee
morale and loyalty, Dr. Heasley says. "It's not usually the
Internet that's the problem. Employers need to look deeper when
trying to rectify situations."
Lisette Hilton is a professional writer, specializing in medical
and business writing to the trade and consumer.
