E mail in the Workplace, Yours
E-mail in the Workplace, YoursBy: Grace Cox
The issue I choose to explore is the subject of whether electronic mail is private to employees of a company or if it is ethical for the Company to monitor and view their employees e-mail and other electronic communications. As the attached article states, ninety percent of all companies with 1,000 or more employees are using e-mail. E-mail and voice-mail are commonplace to most companies these days. E-mail is a giant step towards the "paperless" office. E-mail is also a great time and paper saver. Gone are the days of Xeroxing memo's for each employee, e-mail is much faster and easier on the environment. These new technologies are changing communications in the workplace and are creating new problems for employers and employees. These technologies are also allowing employers to monitor employees in new ways. All e-mails are viewable by employers, even if they have been "deleted" by the employee. As stated in the article, employer's reasons for monitoring their employees e-mail are to investigate and prevent illegal activities and to evaluate employee performance. Company's feel that what takes place on their premises is company property and therefore they have the right to monitor e-mail. Employees feel in some cases, this is a violation of their privacy rights. I feel I have to agree with employers on this issue, however, to a point. I feel employers do have the right to access employees e-mail with the employee's consent as to when and how often and for what purpose. I feel there are differences as to why an employer would want to monitor e-mail. If an employee is strictly in a data entry, word processing or customer service position, I can understand the employer's need to monitor for speed and accuracy. However, I feel for employees who are not in these types of positions, some sort of honesty must exist. I feel an employer should only have the right to monitor or retrieve e-mail if suspicion of fraud or illegal activities exist. I feel employees need to be aware that companies can monitor their e-mail, that it is not entirely private. Some employees may not understand that e-mail, regardless if it is saved or deleted, can very easily be retrieved from backup systems. Companies should institute a policy stating computer use should be restricted to Company usage and e-mail should be regarded as a business tool. The policy should explain the manner in which e-mail and computer monitoring will take place. The employee has the right to know how often they will be monitored. I feel random viewing of e-mails is an invasion of privacy, as would be bugging an employee's office, which is virtually the same idea. Ideas,...
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