By Katy Humpert, Jayplay writer
Imagine working at a job where your employer constantly monitors you. An electronic monitor records the time you arrive and leave. Surveillance cameras watch everywhere you go in the building. Every key stroke you type on the computer is stored The Web sites you visit, the emails you write, everything you do is saved for possible future review. Your boss can listen to your phone conversations at any point. On top of that, you are subjected to random drugs tests where you have to submit bodily fluids to your employer, and, if you object to any of these practices you could be fired.
Stop imagining
For many KU students and millions of employees nationwide, surveillance in the workplace is an everyday reality. New technologies allow companies to have more control than ever over their employees through the monitoring of their daily activities. These practices are not only legal, but commonplace. While employers can lawfully monitor employees, experts say that does not necessarily make it right.
Yes, you are being watched
If you work in an office setting, chances are your boss is somehow watching what you are doing on the computer.
The 2005 Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance Survey from the American Management Association and The e-Policy Institute says 76 percent of compa
nies monitor the Web sites workers visit. Another 50 percent store and review computer files on workers' computers while even more, 55 percent, retain and review employees' e-mail messages. Take into account that 67 percent of companies already use software to block inappropriate Web sites and it's easy to see that the corporations of America aren't taking any chances when letting their staff use the Internet. Lincoln Lewis, Lawrence senior, interned at an architecture firm in Rhode Island and says his superiors kept vigilance over what he and his co-workers did on the Internet. Not only were the sites he visited monitored with software, but his employers physically watched over his shoulder while he spent time online.
The phone, another way for workers to potentially waste time, presents another medium for monitoring. The same survey says 51 percent of employers, up from 9 percent in 2001, track the amount of time spent on the phone and the numbers dialed by employees. According to the survey, 19 percent of organizations record and review their workers' telephone conversations. Voicemaills are also fair ground for monitoring. In fact, 15 percent of companies admit to listening to employee voicemail messages, including those that have been deleted.
Joe Green, Olathe senior, works as an intern at Capitol One Home Loans and says at any time his phone conversations with customers can be monitored, but that his employer lets employees know
when they are being recorded.
Even employees at Target feel the watchful eye of their superiors. Shanna Thomas, Winfield junior, says video cameras follow her and her co-workers everywhere they go in the store, from the loading docks to the parking lots. The bathrooms are the only locations inmute to video surveillance. She says not only are there a plethora of cameras, but they also have the ability to zoom in close enough to see what employees are writing in their check books. Overall, 51 percent of companies use video monitoring to counter theft and violence among employees, according to the survey.
Cover your ass
Nancy Flynn, executive director of the e-Policy Institute, says the number one reason for monitoring employees is legal liability. She says e-mails and Internet history can become valuable evidence in litigations involving sexual harassment, discrimination and any other workplace lawsuit, adding that 20 percent of employers have had employee e-mail subpoenaed as part of a lawsuit or investigation. She also says several companies have actually gone to court because of an employee e-mail.
Bill Staples, chair of the sociology department at the University of Kansas, says employers also say they monitor employees to stop them from wasting time and company resources. This way, a manager will have physical proof that employees spend more
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