Is Your Boss Watching You?

Whether you work in a large corporate office or your company has less than twenty-five full-time employees, you can basically assume that your boss is keeping an eye on you in one way shape or form. The problem is that unless you have an idea of why and how this is happening, there is a good chance that you might be unduly jumpy and prone to anxiety. There are some very basic business practices that show up virtually every industry, so it is very important to be aware of them.

There are many reasons that your employers would want to keep an eye on your activities and as an employee, it is important for you to understand them and to understand your rights as well. The first thing that you need to understand is that your employers are maintaining surveillance over you is a matter of legality. There are many industries, telecommunications among them, that maintain that taping calls gives both the customer and the company itself evidence in the case of a legal problem. You'll also that there are many issues regarding your workplace environment; if one employee has a graphic picture or slogan on their computer that is offensive or threatening to another employee, this could create a hostile workplace.

Productivity is a large part of the reason that companies will keep an eye on your computer activity, especially in an environment where you have access to the internet as opposed to the intranet. While according to a 2001 survey, 97% of all employees believe that surfing the internet doesn't impact their productivity, a 2000 survey stated that 65% of Human Resources departments had disciplined an employee for inappropriate internet usage, and about 30% had fired an employee for this reason.

The first thing that you should keep in mind is that your work computer is a public commodity and that there is no such thing as privacy on it. This means that regardless of what your company's policy is regarding internet policy, you should always keep your web browsing as inoffensive and as straightforward as possible. If you keep an online blog, you should be aware of the fact that some companies will take advantage of key logging software that will allow them to force the computer to regurgitate everything that you have typed in. You can also bet on the fact that if you interact with customers over the phones that what you say will be recorded.

Another thing that you need to keep in mind is that while it is a good idea to keep in mind where you are and what you are doing when it comes to your computer work and your interactions with customers and co-workers alike, there is no system that can monitor you 100% of the time. Even if the information exists, there is a good chance that it is only checked if something becomes a problem. One thing that many veteran employees understand is that if the management wants to fire you, they will find a reason to do it!

When you are thinking about employer surveillance, remember that while you should cautious, there is no reason at all for paranoia.