It was quite an interesting topic which the authors of “Snooping Bosses” addressed. My first reaction and thought was that the bosses who snoop to that extent on their staff must truly be short of work…and that from now on I will be more careful regarding what I do on the web during work hours.
I don´t know what one should think of the fact that employers often snoop and monitor their staff. From privacy aspect is this of course a negative thing that an employer so easily can monitor what her/his staff do during work hours.
Of course one could argue that at work it is the bosses business what the staff does, as one of the bosses in the article did. I can agree with this but what I question is which course of action one is taking to monitor and to guarantee that the employees work at work and don´t kill time by surfing the web for example.
If the employer notices that his employees are less efficient than usual she/he could start by having a conversation with this employee rather than snoop as a first procedure.
I think that this discussion is similar to that which addresses if and how one should, for example, videotape public places and so on. As I have understand does the ones that are for this argue that it is a safety measure and that it could help solving crimes etc.
I think that it also comes down on a individual level and weather one argue that to be monitored in one way or the other is a violation on ones right to privacy or if it could be a good thing, one procedure that could make that people behave in a “proper” way or at least to make it easier to detect actions which are inappropriate.
I would like to say Antonia, your comment and decision in paragraph one on what you will do henceforth during office hours is one of the reasons employers often has these gadgets installed. It often motivates productivity. However, I think I like your decision because it will not only improve your productivity rate, but will also give you some credit in your workplace.
SvaraRaderaIn responding to the point you raised on the approach to be taken to guarantee productivity, I would say that having a conversation with every staff of a company with over 3,000 staff for instance, entails creating a department in the company to handle such matters as there will always be staff with personal issues that affect their productivity. This of course means more expenditure as salaries and wages have to be paid. Without going from individual work station to another in an office or from point to point on a production line, a better way is to have cameras at particular places. This way, wider range is covered with fewer personnel in detecting staff that are not up to speed.
On a final note, it is clearly seen the issue of security cannot be overemphasized giving rise to the need for public surveillance.
Antonia, i must agree that empolyer must monitor on workers that what are they doing . either working well and giving any progress or just killing time, but , it will go wrong and can give negative impact on workers that their boss is interfering on their personal matters and trying to monitor on his/her personal matters and personal time (not in working).
SvaraRaderaif any boss/employer is monitoring his/her employe after working timmings then it can be bad effect on employe, it results as irritation .
Answer to John Chinedum Ekechukwu:
SvaraRaderaI wrote that more as a joke, I´m sorry if it didn´t come across that way...