Having worked a few part time jobs during my time in college I understand the importance of monitoring employees. Without responsibility and accountability in these types of jobs, the only result would be me not getting my work done.
My experiences however differ from those of someone working a 9-5 office job. These are people who are trusted to sit in front of a computer for 8 hours a day and expected to be working productively for their whole shift. While in my experience if its discovered that I even have my phone on me, let alone dare to check it, I get given out to. With human nature, it is a lot to expect of someone to just sit there and do their work without adequate monitoring. In my jobs if I was told I could sit there and not do my work, still get paid the same and get to go home at the same time it would be a no brainer.
As a result of this businesses do monitor what their employees do during work. Some just measure productivity with a quantitative measurement such as number of keystrokes. Some take it as far as to record the employees monitors that they use during work, having a record of everything they do.
This of course raises questions of not just ethics but what impact would this type of monitoring can have on employee-employer relationship and morale. The idea behind it obviously being that employees will do their work out of fear of being caught doing nothing. This has been proved to increase productivity and better customer service through listening to phone calls. (Root III, 2019)
However, if employees aren’t happy with this it may affect other aspects of the business. Some employees believe the goals being set for them are too high and morale can be low as a result. The constant need to be hitting these goals and not doing so can only be demotivating for employees or decrease the quality of work being done as a result of being rushed. (Frost, 2019)
This can also have an effect on the trust between managers and subordinates. Employees may become uncomfortable with the information a manager has on them, affecting the relationship in and outside the workplace. Separating the workplace into different groups where employees feel the managers are against them, with a sense of unfairness that the managers don’t need to be monitored too can lead to friction and perhaps staff turnover. So, managers can enjoy any bonuses they may receive from the increased productivity but good luck to them being invited for drinks on a Friday night.
References
Frost, S., 2019. Consequences
of Workplace Surveillance. [Online]
Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/consequences-workplace-surveillance-11814.html
[Accessed 29 March 2019].
Root III, G. N., 2019. The Effects of Employee
Monitoring. [Online]
Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/effects-employee-monitoring-17431.html
[Accessed 29 March 2019].
Beyond The Border 