After reading the article ’Snooping Bosses’ I had several thoughts on the matter of privacy. To begin with I am going to point out that employers are always looking for ways to increase efficiency of their employees. Looking at it from that standpoint it becomes obvious that implementing electronic surveillance in the workplace is in the interest of the employers. After all it is the employers that pay employees their salary and because of that they have all the reason in world to make sure they get their moneys worth.
I believe therefore that employers have the right to check how their employees spend their time during work and also to ensure that the company's employees follow the company's rules of conduct. For an example monitoring the content of email and other communication forms. Of course there is the fact that I think that all employers that uses such methods should inform all their employees of the fact that they are being monitored in a thorough manner.
This of course only describes my thoughts of electronic surveillance in a workplace environment. The article mentions that some employers also check what their employees do in their spare time. This includes continuous background checks as well as checking social websites such as Facebook. The simplest way to ensure that you don't get fired is to not post or upload anything that could have a negative effect on the company your working in.
Not only is this getting usual amongst different companies it is also becoming more prevalent in other parts of our society and it is my belief that tracking, monitoring and surveillance will become an integral part in the future. As can probably be perceived from my inclinations I favour security and safety. I reach that belief because if the police has access to more information they will hopefully solve more crimes. Also more surveillance in public places would increase the safety in such areas. Well these are my thoughts on the matter.
I agree on the "At work" part, as long as they do not overdo it. But at home, it is not acceptable to be monitored. If you have a shady past, so what? Maybe you have changed, and probably you have, because you've got a job now. If you do something to hurt the company, then you are subject of investigation, but not before that happens. And why would you even want to hurt your own workplace? Isn't that a bit stupid to begin with?
ReplyDeleteThe public surveillance part though, I agree, there are too many crimes being committed, and increased surveillance is probably the easiest way to lower the risk of being mugged. The only negative thing is that maybe not everyone wants to be videotaped. Some might even be under legal protection, and being taped is, for them, downright dangerous. But that maybe that is not a big enough price to pay for increased security.
Andreas,
ReplyDeleteA very interesting blog entry. I agree with your comments. I think your English is very good, but it would simplify to the reader if you put in some more commas in your text.
See you in class,
Anja
Employers won’t be what they are if they wouldn’t make profit, it is their target. And electronic is just a way to increase their factory efficiency. But I think that they have to be careful that it is really cost-effective. I just can agree with you about this paragraph.
ReplyDeleteIf an employee always reaches his target at the end of months, his employer has not got any reason to spy what he can do on his computer. Employers business is to be sure that his employee reaches targets he gave him. If it is not the case, thus he has got a good reason to spy this one to know why. So I don’t agree with Andreas on his viewpoint.
Indeed, tracking, monitoring and surveillance will become usual because it is making a new requirement in our world, the safety requirement. As we know, requirements are making new jobs too, and we always need new jobs in our society. Furthermore, if you are self-confident that you don’t do something illegal, where is the problem to be tracking if it can help you or someone else?
Like I said in my last assignment, we have to make a choice between safety and privacy. If we want to feel more safety, we have to give some of our privacy.