Almost every worker has done it: gotten in a little Facebook updating, personal e-mailing, YouTube watching and friend calling while on the clock.
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Such indiscretions often went undetected by company management everywhere but the most secure and highly proprietary companies or governmental agencies. Not anymore.
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Firms have become sharp-eyed, keenly eared watchdogs as they try to squeeze every penny’s worth of their employees’ salaries and to ensure they have the most professional and lawsuit-proof workplaces.
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Managers use technological advances to capture workers’ computer keystrokes, monitor the Web sites they frequent, even track their whereabouts through GPS-enabled cell phones. Some companies have gone as far as using webcams and minuscule video cameras to secretly record employees’ movements.
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There are two trends driving the increase in monitoring, says Lewis Maltby, author of the workplace rights book Can They Do That? One is financial pressure. Everyone is trying to get leaner and meaner, and monitoring is one way to do it. The other reason is that it’s easier than ever. It used to be difficult and expensive to monitor employees, and now, it’s easy and cheap.
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Employers no longer have to hire a pricey private investigator to install a complicated video system or computer-use tracking devices. Now, they can easily buy machine-monitoring software and tiny worker-tracking cameras at a local electronics store or through Internet retailers.
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Monitoring has expanded beyond expected, highly regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals and financial services. Employees at radio stations, ad agencies, media outlets, sports leagues, even thinly staffed mom-and-pop workplaces are tracked.
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Smarsh, one of many firms that offers technology to monitor, archive and search employee communications on e-mail, IM, Twitter and text-messaging, services about 10,000 U.S. workplaces.
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Employees should assume that they are going to be watched, says CEO Stephen Marsh.
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subhead
Keeping an Eye Out
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Two-thirds of employers monitor workers’ Internet use, according to an American Management…