Introduction
The growing issues with Internet usage in the workplace has become a major concern for employers. Employers are discovering that employees are spending hours of wasted time surfing the Internet and sending inappropriate emails. Employers classify this type of behavior as, “Internet abuse,” and breaking company’s policies. While employees see this type of behavior harmless, employers see this as potential risks to their organization. Previous researched study show employees spend hours surfing the Internet and sending non-work related emails to co-workers, family, and friends. With millions of employees having access to their employer’s Internet, companies are seeing an increase in Internet usage causing potential legal issues and billions of wasted dollars. These issues have also caused loss in productivity and network crashes. To combat these major issues, employers have implemented monitoring technology to help deter employees from using company computer for personal business. Many of these employees are sometimes unaware they are been monitored and are concern with the lack of privacy in the workplace. Employees believe employers implement monitoring systems to make them work harder.
This paper will discuss the Internet abuse by employees and the affect it has the organizations as a whole. Employers and human resource managers are beginning to implement policies and training practices to deter employees from spending long hours on the Internet and more time been productivity.
Internet abuse and monitoring
Employers nationwide feel employees are spending hours surfing the Internet, sending, and receiving inappropriate emails. This has caused low productivity rate for many organizations as well...
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In Fitbit for Bosses written by Lynn Stuart Parramore she talks about how bosses want to start monitoring their employees. Parramore shows her discomfort with this idea. She thinks that “big money seems poised to trump privacy”(Parramore). Which basically just means that for bosses is that money is over everything even privacy. Allowing bosses to monitor their employees is dishonest and manipulating.Some researchers have also found out that increasing surveillance has caused the decrease of productivity. Researchers warned them that the data can have big errors and people that look at the data that the fitbits can cherry-pick the information that supports their beliefs and ditch the rest of the information that leads to racial profiling. “Surveillance makes everyone seem suspicious, creating perceptions and expectations of dishonesty.” Workers will become dehumanized“(Parramore), it prevents them from experimenting and exercising the creativity on the job.” A woman from California filed a suit against her former employer because he forced her to to install a tracking app on her phone. She had to have it on her phone 24/7 or else she would
The main points that are stated in "Employees & Ethics With Computers" by Debra Kraft are personal internet usage, email, harassment, privacy, policies, and training. Kraft's computer ethics relate to the Ten Commandments of Ethical Computing by Computer Ethics Institute. The first computer ethic personal internet usage would fall under multiple commandments such as number two, seven, and ten. If employees are using the internet access for personal internet usage it can slow down and hinder the company connectivity for the entire organization. Email is also a computer ethic that falls under a few the commandments such as one, two, seven, and nine. Improper usage of email service can cost the company in data or business losses.
A poll by MacWorld states that over twenty-one percent of all employees are monitored at work, and the larger the company, the higher the percentage (Privacy 445). Unaware of this electronic monitoring, most employees often are not working at their peak performance due to this type of scrutiny. The majority of Americans believe that electronic monitoring should not be allowed.
Part of the allure of the Internet has always been the anonymity it offers its users. As the Internet has grown however, causing capitalists and governments to enter the picture, the old rules are changing fast. E-commerce firms employ the latest technologies to track minute details on customer behavior. The FBI's Carnivore email-tracking system is being increasingly used to infringe on the privacy of netizens. Corporations now monitor their employees' web and email usage. In addition to these privacy infringements, Internet users are also having their use censored, as governments, corporations, and other institutions block access to certain sites. However, as technology can be used to wage war on personal freedoms, it can also be employed in the fight against censorship and invasion of privacy.
30 Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (2002) Employee Monitoring: Is There Privacy in the Workplace? . (6/3/2004)
Sometimes there is no middle ground. Monitoring of employees at the workplace, either you side with the employees or you believe management owns the network and should call the shots. The purpose of this paper is to tackle whether monitoring an employee is an invasion of privacy. How new technology has made monitoring of employees by employers possible. The unfairness of computerized monitoring software used to watch employees. The employers desire to ensure that the times they are paying for to be spent in their service is indeed being spent that way. Why not to monitor employees, as well as tips on balancing privacy rights of employees at the job.
9 Nov. 2004 <http://www.washingtonpost.com O'Reilly, John. An Employer's Guide to Surveillance, Searches & Medical Examination. Toronto: Thomson Canada Limited, 2003. "Protect Yourself Online."
One type of surveillance is employee monitoring. Many employers monitor their workers’ activities for one reason or another. Companies monitor employees using many methods. They may use access panels that requires employees to identify themselves to control entry to various area in the building, allowing them to create a log of employee movements. They may also use software to monitor attendance and work hours. Additionally, many programs allows companies to monitor activities performed on work computers, inspect employee emails, log keystrokes, etc. An emerging methods of employee monitor also include social network and search engine monitoring. Employers can find out who their employees are associated with, as well as other potentially incriminating information. (Ciocchetti)
Technology is ever-changing, and impacts our lives in various ways. All advances in technology makes our lives much more efficient, but often creates additional issues or concerns. As technology advances, we are exposed to more privacy, security, and legal issues which we would not normally encounter prior to implementing cybertechnology. "Companies often push the limits of technology and privacy internally, when using wearable technology within the workplace” (Yach, 2015, Para.3). The discussion on how the implementation of newer technologies affects consumers or employees are often never discussed.
Cyber loafing is using personal internet during working hours (Liberman, Seidman, Mckenna & Buffardi 2011, pp. 2192). Cyber loafing is one of the issues that employees need to deal with at work. Websen (cited in Vitak et.al 2011, p. 1751) claims that there is a huge loses in work productivity in the US that cost the companies milli...
During the past decade, the internet has revolutionized and changed the way organizations do business by offering rapid communication systems and enhanced information access and innovation of technological advancements have created a brave new workplace. Further, the internet enables organizations to decrease expenses, reduce product life cycle time, market goods and services more efficiently (Anandarajan et al, 2000). However, with these kinds of benefits, the internet provides employees with a technique
Laws are in place for protection. Often one may look at rules and only think that it protects one side but in reality, laws exist to protect everyone involved. Whereas the initial viewing of a law seems to protect a particular demographic, the reality is that laws protect those who need to adhere to said laws as well. In the case of employees and employers as long as everyone follows the rules everyone benefits. The employers have happy employees and the employees can concentrate on work because in no way are they being violated.
In Australia, Employers should implement best practice on how to maintain privacy in the workplace in accordance with the privacy standards set out in the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) (Welcome to the Fair Work Ombudsman website. n.d.). Privacy is able to keep our own personal information private and also able to do things without any electronic monitoring in the workplace. Nowadays, many company increased the usage of technology such as internet and email in the workplace. This can create issues in privacy. When employees’ access to web browsing activities during working hours, the employer can be scrutinized it. Employers take this action due to fear lawsuit if employees act in inappropriate ways. Therefore, the best policy is to explain clearly how is appropriate to use email and internet at work and outline what type of use is prohibited in the workplace. Besides that, employer also needs to ensure the employee didn’t disclose or disseminate any important information to the competitors or
Internet addiction is a growing problem with more and more people. The internet is much more accessible to people now than it was just a few years ago. The internet provides people with entertainment, loads of information, and an escape from everyday life, but like anything else, too much a good thing can be addictive. This paper will cover what internet addiction is, warning signs of internet addiction, problems caused by internet addiction, who develops internet addiction, preventing and treating internet addiction, and safety guidelines for internet users.
For the past decade or two, Internet is a channel that promotes an access to information and communication in the global world. It is one of the most powerful tool. Now-a-days, an access to the internet has become easier than ever, whether we are using a computer, phone or tablets. There is no doubt that people are spending more and more time online. Because many people use the internet for their career and education, it is hard to differentiate between the normal usage and excessive usage of the internet. We all use web at a normal level, but when it becomes compulsory for survival it becomes an addiction.