Posted on: Monday, June 04, 2001

On-job surveillance on the rise, study says

Gannett News Service

More than three-quarters, 77.7 percent, of major U.S. companies keep tabs on employees by checking their e-mail, Internet, phone calls, computer files or by videotaping them at work, according to the American Management Association's annual survey on workplace monitoring and surveillance.

"There are increasing concerns involving productivity issues, liability issues, and security issues," said Eric Rolfe Greenberg, director of management studies for AMA, which conducted the survey in January of 1,627 large- and mid-sized companies.

He said 63 percent monitor workers' Internet connections, up from 54 percent a year ago, and 47 percent store and review employee e-mail, an increase from 38 percent in 2000. Meanwhile, 40 percent block Internet connections to unauthorized or inappropriate sites, up from 29 percent.

More than a quarter of surveyed companies (27 percent) say that they've fired employees for misuse of office e-mail or Internet connections, and nearly two-thirds (65 percent) report some disciplinary measure for those offenses.

"Privacy in today's workplace is largely illusory," said Ellen Bayer, AMA's practice leader on human resources issues. "In this era of open-space cubicles, shared desk space, networked computers and teleworkers, it is hard to realistically hold onto a belief in private space. Work is carried out on equipment belonging to employers who have a legal right to the work product of the employees using it."

The overall monitoring-surveillance figure — up 73.4 percent last year — includes such measures as video recording of employees on the job (15 percent), recording and reviewing telephone messages (12 percent) and storing and reviewing voice mail (8 percent).

In previous years, the growth in monitoring went hand in hand with increases in the share of employees gaining access to e-mail and the Internet. This year, however, the average share of employees with office connections hardly grew at all, while monitoring of those activities rose by nearly 10 percent.