Is Workplace Surveillance A Digital Dirty Work?

The surveillance of the workplace has turned into a heated discussion in 2024. The surveillance of the workplace has posed a threat to employees’ privacy. But, companies claim that they have the legal right to track their workers during working hours. Then where is the limit between dirty work and doing the right thing? We will start with the numbers. The report released this year revealed that 25% of companies had fired employees for breaching policy while at work last year.  

The advancement of technological tools has made it possible to track employees’ activities. Employers can track them at the workplace, which was difficult before. It is happening due to fundamental changes in how employees work at business organizations. Today, employers can perform unblinking eye tracking of employees using contemporary tech tools. So, business organizations have a couple of legal obligations apart from the employees’ consent. This means they are under constant monitoring.

Organizations conduct their works through Internet networks. and cyber-attacks are now facilitated in virtual space. Things like intellectual property theft, time wasting, and trade secret leaks may happen both on purpose and by accident.

In order to limit this, the companies are interested in using monitoring tools. It helps them for internet filtering, email and social media monitoring. It also includes recording of calls and text messages. As a result, as the technology is increasing in business interaction. The number of rule-breaking cases rises, and so does the need for surveillance. 

In the digital age of businesses, much of the work now is done through calls, videos, and online platforms. That is why employers need to track the activities of their workers to protect business from any abuse. So, some critics say that endless oversight is a violation of privacy.

Employers claim that they need to look after business interests and adhere to the laws that apply. The main goal of this is to filter web usage, review emails and messages, track locations, and log calls.

There are a lot of benefits to workplace surveillance, such as preventing employee misbehavior. It also helps in improving productivity. Technology is making monitoring more possible, and it can be a threat to human privacy.

In 2024, workplace surveillance has become more common. Most companies are monitoring employees.

While at the workplace, some degree of surveillance is necessary. But the constant monitoring of workers can damage their privacy. As an employee, it might feel like the “Big Brother” is always surveying you.

Monitoring becomes dirty when you track your employee’s activity without their consent. Gathering personal data to protect your business secrets without making a written agreement harms employees’ morale. Thus, employees must have written consent and introduce the company’s policy during recruitment.

According to recent surveys, more than 65% of companies have dismissed employees for internet use in the last year. Companies track it to prevent the breaching of intellectual property. But, constant supervision and harsh punishment can damage the workplace atmosphere. It can also break the trust between managers and workers in the work.

Employee tracking is possible these days in plenty of ways. Nowadays, business executives are using hidden phones and plenty of other apps. These apps allow employers to keep tabs on every activity employees have done at the workplace. Keeping your workforce under constant monitoring also affects employee morale. It also affects many things. Let’s discuss how spying on employees’ data affects their efficiency.

Digital dirty work,  breaching employees’ privacy with the use of monitoring tools, will affect the performance of the employees. Employees will always be insecure about their personal calls and text message content being monitored. Thus, don’t use employee monitoring to breach their privacy. Track their productivity or prevent activities that can harm your business.

It stresses the employee when they know they are being monitored. They may think about the things they have done for personal reasons. Because no one is willing to reveal their activities, they won’t be able to concentrate on their assigned tasks. Employees start lacking productivity.

The constant workplace surveillance, especially in digital dirty work, prevails in similar working habits. When Employees know that employers are watching their activities in real-time, they work with more focus. This way, they know they have to produce productive work. So, they turned themselves to quantity rather than quantity rather than creating skilled or creative work.

Spying on employees can cause their morale to decrease. It makes them feel detached and devalued. But, it is common that feeling downgraded by employees reduces their productivity. It can also cause them to become disgruntled and may end their tolerance. Thus, always try to impose employee monitoring within limits and make your employees feel comfortable.

There are several ways to protect your business at work without breaching the privacy of your employees. Let’s discuss the tips that you need to apply to the fullest extent to track your employees without going beyond the limits.

• Introduce the limits of internet usage policy, get written consent, and further use a spy app for browsing activities. You can also block inappropriate time-wasting websites.
• Track emails sent or received emails on the company’s owned devices.
• Record live screen activities of your company’s owned cell phones and desktop computer machines.
• Use a data backup app to retrieve all the lost data due to any employee activity.
• Check IMs running on the company’s owned devices,      which you have discussed with your employees before.
• Use powerful computer monitoring software alarms to prevent phishing and catch dishonest employees.
• Use the keystrokes logging tool to get your hands on the particular keystrokes applied by your employees that can harm your business. You can track using weak passwords, email content, and text messages to track Messenger installed.
• Track the front camera of your company’s owned laptop machines to know whether employees are on their seats or not. Moreover, you can record the surround sounds and conversations on the company’s devices. It helps in understanding what your employees are talking about behind your back. Remember; don’t use tracking tools for computers to breach your employees’ personal belongings.

Workplace surveillance is necessary to protect your business and measure productivity. But no one has the right to breach someone’s privacy. It also includes employees, apart from their activities on the company’s computer devices.

Further, you can ban the use of personal cell phones and gadgets at the workplace. Technology will keep advancing.

The question is how we will use it. With open communication and mutual respect, employers and employees can find an ethical way in which tech tools can be applied. And there, we can all strive not to do things we shouldn’t, even if no one is watching.