Employee tips on workplace surveillance

Mar 27, 2006 3:05 PM

According to a 2005 survey by the American Management Association (AMA), U.S. firms continue to record and review employee communications and activities on the job. This includes checking employee phone calls, e-mail messages, Internet connections and computer files.
Seventy-six percent of businesses monitor employee Web use and 55 percent keep and review e-mail messages. More than 51 percent of companies say they participate in video surveillance for security purposes. Thirty-one percent monitor employees' outgoing phone numbers. And 53 percent use key cards for employee access control.
Of the companies that watch employee behavior, 80 percent notify employees of this activity. Employers have established policies monitoring personal e-mail abuse (81 percent); personal instant messenger use (42 percent); operation of personal Web sites on company time (34 percent); personal postings on corporate blogs (23 percent); and operation of personal blogs on company time (20 percent).
The following tips, offered by CareerBuilder.com editor Kate Lorenz, should be standard operating procedure for employees:
* Review the company handbook to know what is acceptable behavior regarding the technologies.
* Don't use company e-mail for private messages. Experts say if an e-mail system is owned by an employer, the company is allowed to review its contents.
* Keep passwords private and in a secure place.
* Stay off sensitive Web sites while at work.
* When stepping away from your desk, turn off your computer.
* Report to work on time: According to one office administration manager in Chicago, "If your company has a security key card system that you use to gain access to your building, management knows what time you came into the building and reported for work."

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