ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE OF EMPLOYEES

Electronic Surveillance of Employees



Electronic Surveillance of Employees

Introduction

Employee monitoring has a place in society, and employers do have the right to monitor employee performance and use of company resources. Employers lose money when an employee doesn't perform the work that she is being paid to do. In effect, that employee is stealing from her employer by not providing what she agreed to provide, which is work in exchange for a paycheck. (Michael, Katina and Michael, 2009)

Contrary to popular belief, monitoring in the workplace also benefits the employee. For example, a very expensive pair of sun glasses is stolen from Joe while he is at work. He accuses Dave, his work partner, of taking the glasses because Dave complemented Joe on them, and said that he wants a pair. Joe goes to Human Resources and lodges a complaint against Dave. It is discovered that Dave didn't steal Joe's glasses; a video camera that is installed in the work area taped Brian, the custodian, pocketing Joe's glasses when he thought no one was watching. This monitoring process saved Dave's reputation and proved who the real culprit is. (Michael, Katina and Michael, 2009)

Explantion

Monitoring employees while on the job is a way that companies have to ensure that their losses are minimized. In the office workplace there are typically two types of workspaces, an, in which there are several desks and where conversations can be overheard, or an enclosed office, in which-when the door is closed- conversations cannot be heard and where one would expect virtually total privacy. There is some sort of difference between the two as when there is an open environment employers need to take care of varioud issues and it is little difficult as compare to the close environment. It's very easy to catch everything in the close environment. There are many different forms of employee monitoring. There are legal and illegal boundaries, and laws that employers must adhere to. The employer has the right to videotape places where the employee has no reasonable expectation of privacy such as work stations, hallways, work areas, building exterior areas, parking lots, employee break rooms, and common areas. (Michael, Katina and Michael, 2009)

If Herman's need to know whether his salespersons are honest is not a sufficient ground for utilizing electronic surveillance, as employer needs to other aspects of the security as well. They need to make sure that every employee is safe from the outside and inside people. Employers install hidden surveillance cameras for many good reasons (preventing theft, promoting productivity or protecting employees) that in some cases will intrude upon employee privacy. Legal observers and human resource specialists who study workplace privacy believe that employee privacy intrusions are more common than previously observed, and that they will increase every year. According to a 2005 survey conducted by the UK Management Association, more than half of the companies surveyed use video monitoring to prevent theft, violence and sabotage (51% in 2005 ...