Abstract
With the advent of networked computers, close monitoring of employees by their employers is now easily implementable. To the employer, being able to monitor ensures that employees are doing their job and doing them well. But at the same time, such monitoring is decried by many employees as an invasion of employee privacy.
Just how much monitoring represents an invasion of privacy? Is monitoring anyway really beneficial as a means of increasing efficiency or quality in a company?
Monitoring may be considered to intrude on workers' privacy rights in a number of ways. Doubtlessly, notifying workers that monitoring is taking place is considered required. But how may this information be used? And who should be permitted access?
Not only should privacy rights be examined, but also how such monitoring affects the company as a whole. While the employer certainly has the right to make sure that employees are doing their work, there is evidence that certain kinds of monitoring can hurt company esprit de corps and can increase worker stress levels and job dissatisfaction. Perhaps when workers feel that they no longer have control over their jobs, they do not perform optimally. If performance statistics are posted publicly, how would this influence workplace moral? Would it serve as a motivational tool or a destroyer of moral?
And exactly what kind of monitoring is most effective? For instance, it may be better to focus upon quality rather than quantity. When workers produce widgets or answer phone calls, would it be better for employers to measure productivity based on customer satisfaction with the service or the ability of the widgets to meet specifications instead of the actual number of calls or widgets produced? Might it be better to use large-scale measurements of worker performance instead of monitoring keystroke rates of individual employees?
The goal of maximum productivity cannot be achieved without considering the human impacts of computer monitoring. Care must be taken to avoid infringement on employees' rights to privacy and well-being while maintaining employers' rights to benefit from the labor they have hired. As this topic is explored, perhaps a happy medium can be found that will take into account the rights and needs of both the worker and the employer.
