Introduction
While employers should protect the privacy of their workers, in some cases, business owners and managers break this rule to maintain workplace safety and productivity, as well as avoid possible legal considerations.
Background information
Employers may now practically monitor all workplace conversations made by any employee thanks to technology. Although this step helps avoid numerous potential problems, it also allows some persons to question the ethical side of this privacy invasion. According to polls conducted by the American Management Association (AMA), 28% of the responding organizations have dismissed an employee for abusing email, and 43% of them monitored employee email (Davis et al. 7). Additionally, 15% of the companies surveyed had been sued because of employee email (Davis et al. 7). The importance of this topic is supported by the fact that, if not discussed, it may cause specific misunderstandings between workers and their leaders.
Thesis statement
Despite some ethical considerations, employers should monitor staff’s email use because there is technically no invasion of privacy and without this intervention, workplace security and performance are at risk.
Emails in Business Email Accounts Are Not Private
In general, emails sent or received through business email accounts are not regarded as private.
The key purpose of such emails is entirely business in nature, meaning that they should not contain information that managers cannot see. Otherwise, the essence of the communication changes to personal, which is not how workplace email accounts must be used. Numerous businesses prefer to inform their staff members that corporate email accounts are being monitored, and in this case, there is no opportunity to invade privacy if confidentiality is not guaranteed in the first place (Kim 265). However, even if the business does not have a formal email policy of this nature, it still likely has the legal authority to view employee email communications sent from work accounts.
Employee Monitoring Enhances Security and Productivity
Another important outcome of employee monitoring is enhanced security and productivity. According to Johnson, “employees work better when they know they are being watched,” and their motivation to remain responsible and avoid nonworkplace communication grows. Reviewing emails sent from business accounts and during working hours can also help identify those employees who fail to meet the firm’s expectations, and the employer can adopt the required measures to enhance this worker’s performance. Otherwise, non-monitored employees are tempted to be less aware and careful when sending emails (Johnson). Finally, when engaging in online communication, an employee can accidentally include the company’s secret information, and monitoring emails is the only effective way to avoid or solve such errors promptly.
Employee Monitoring Is Not Immoral
Opponents of this workplace intervention state that it is immoral and can hurt employees’ feelings. When knowing they are being watched and controlled, some workers may perceive this as a sign of distrust, which is quite unpleasant (Davis et al. 6). They can lose their motivation because of feeling doubted and then decide to change their workplace, hoping other employers will not engage in such unethical activities.
This opinion is flawed because it is quite easy to address employees’ concerns (Johnson). If managers list the actual reasons for monitoring corporate email accounts, including security maintenance, ethical or trust considerations will be eliminated.
Conclusion
To conclude, employers can monitor workers’ email use because this communication is not private in its nature, and this measure can help boost productivity and security. Raising awareness of the advantages of employee surveillance can help eliminate misunderstandings between the parties. To avoid trust and moral issues on both sides, it is recommended that workers and employers enhance the transparency of all measures and operations.
Works Cited
Davis, Kermit G., et al. “The Home Office: Ergonomic Lessons from the ‘New Normal.’” Ergonomics in Design: The Quarterly of Human Factors Applications, vol. 28, no. 4, 2020, pp. 4–10.
Johnson, Simone. “Pros and Cons of Monitoring Your Employees.” Business. Web.
Kim, Sungdoo. “Managing Millennials’ Personal Use of Technology at Work.” Business Horizons, vol. 61, no. 2, 2018, pp. 261–270.