The Ethical and Legal Concerns of Employee Monitoring Essay

Introduction New advances in technology have helped employers utilize new forms of employee monitoring. Eighty percent of larger corporation’s employers took part of a survey about monitoring their employees. Out of every four employers admitted to regularly monitoring their employees. They took part in reviewing their employee’s emails, voice mails, and phone conversations (Evans, 2007). However, in some instances when the employees found out about the monitoring they were left with the feeling that there has been a violation of their rights to privacy. Employee monitoring could fall under the organizational structure of human resources. The human resources department of an organization has the responsibility of hiring new employees,†¦show more content†¦An employee can use the computer to trade, or leak inside company secrets, view inappropriate material, cyber loafing, and download copyrighted material such as software, movies, or music (Bahaudin Mujtaba, n.d.). Trading or leaking inside secrets can put a company at a huge risk. Cyber loafing can cause a ripple effect inside an organization. Employees can develop a lack of interest of performing their duties, they could also start to relay on someone else to carry their share of work. This can also create resentment in the work place from the other workers that are carrying a heavier workload (Bahaudin Mujtaba, n.d.). Illegally downloading copyrighted material can make a company liable to litigations because the crime was committed on the company’s computer. Also, â€Å"Observers say another area of concern for employers are guidelines that the Federal Trade Commission issued last year that could leave employers liable if their employees endorse a firms products on the Internet without identifying themselves as company employees† (Greenwald, 2011). Privacy A concern that employees have from being monitored by their employer is their right to privacy is being violated. 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