Question

1. Should managers monitor employee email and Internet usage? Why or why not?

2. Describe an effective email and web use policy for a company.

3. Should managers inform employees that their web behavior is being monitored? Or should managers monitor secretly? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Question 01:

It is the responsibility of the mangers to monitor his or her subordinates in order to make sure that they are not wasting time at work. Many organizations have free and high-speed internet because of which many individuals waste their time downloading or watching their personnel things during work hours. Such type of issues affects the productivity of the company if it is not handled properly. Hence, many companies restrict access to such sites apart from the sites that are needed for their work. The other main issue is data security. Computer systems in the organizations are interlinked with each other which may have several data related to their activities for which secrecy needs to be maintained. If an employee visits malicious sites that make way for the viruses to enter the system, chances are high for all the systems that are connected to it to get affected.

E-mails also need to be monitored to makes sure that the employees do not click any spam emails that have viruses and also to restrict the employees to share confidential data with others like contractors, customers, etc., If an employee gets caught of any illegal activity during the workhours with the company resources, the company may also be sued. Hence it is necessary to monitor such actions in order to avoid unnecessary disputes or legal actions. Though monitoring the employee’s internet and e-mail usage reduces morale, the individual will get used to it over a period of time. With these actions, the maximum utilization of human resources can be achieved.

Question 02:

An effective e-mail and web policy must have guidelines on the list of actions that are permitted and the list of actions that should not be done. A set of consequence management should be framed to determine the punishments for each and every action and repetitions. For example, If a person uses social media for personal purpose inside the company, the individual will be given a first warning after which he or she will be terminated if the person repeats the mistake again. Many organizations allow their employee to do non-work-related legal online surfing and email during their break hours after getting approval from the appointed manager. This is allowed as an employee may have to check the bank balance, personal emails, or other personal actions that are reasonable

All the people in the organization including the managers should abide by the rules so that the employees are convinced in following it. On the other hand, online activities should also be kept private if it is done after approval or during the allocated break hours for which the managers should not be given the right to ask the employees what they had been doing during such hours. Companies should also malicious sites that have the potential to spam the computer or affect the hardware and software.

Question 03:

Managers should inform the employees if their web behavior is monitored along with a brief explanation of their web policy. This not only enables the employees to avoid using the office computer for personal use but also makes them concentrate on their work. Monitoring their web activities secretly without informing them can even be subjective to legal actions on the company if the employee comes to know about such activities and sues the company. For example, if an employee chats with his wife through any social media without knowing that the internet activities are monitored secretly, If the chat information gets leaked, the individual’s privacy is affected. There are several laws that are established for the protection of employee’s data privacy. Monitoring web behavior secretly also breaks the trust between an employee and an employer. Hence every employee should be warned about the web behavior and the companies data policies immediately when the person joins the company to maintain the positive habit right from the beginning.