Monitoring in the Workplace

Monitoring In The Workplace

Trident University International

Abstract

Personal relationships between management and employees can always sometimes develop even when there is a policy against it. My wife’s company, whom I wish to keep anonymous, is one example of how personal relationships can sometimes conflict with decision to monitor employee behavior at work. This example illustrates how using a utilitarian and deontological reasoning can lead to different solutions.

Monitoring In The Workplace

My wife currently works for a talent management company as a booking agent. The employees of the company regularly socialize outside of work and most have a very good working relationship. If you were to look from the outside then you would notice the employees have a very good relationship with the management. The owner and managers regularly socialize with the employees of the company, almost crossing the line of fraternization. However, the owner of the company has not implemented a fraternization policy and she bonded with her employees to a point where they can spoke their mind at anytime. Even during the social outings the employees interacted with management in a very casual manner. The employees shared almost every personal matter of their lives with management and vice versa. However, even though the relationships between the employees and management are very personal, there is still a privacy issue looming in the background. The owner and management still felt the need to monitor private chat and email, whether work or personal related. If personal information is regularly shared within the company then why should the owner and management feel the need to monitor email traffic and personal instant messaging such as Google Talk?

From a utilitarian prospective monitoring of e-mail and Internet usage raises a host of labor law issues. “Under Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), employers are prohibited...