It turns out that the worker productivity revolution it triggered is all the more amazing because employees who are supposed to be working too often are using company computers to surf for porn, dally at online shopping sites or seek jackpots with Internet gambling.
Without ever leaving their desks, today's workers can transport themselves to an online casino, a shopping bazaar, a porn palace or a rising number of other time-wasting amusements. And corporations are cracking down. More than three-fourths of the nation's major companies monitor employee e-mails, Internet connections and computer files, a figure that has doubled since 1997, according to the American Management Association.
How far should companies go with cybersnooping to counter cyberslacking? They shouldn’t go anywhere at all. Stop wasting money on crappy software that puts your workers in chains. If a worker is spending too much time on the Internet their co-workers and managers will know because, hey, they won’t be doing any work! Otherwise Internet usage is a bonus of working in a battery farm. Like taking a pen or the odd useful envelope home. It’s not like they’re planning to overthrow the company they work for, or shag the MD’s wife.
While they agree the risks are real, worker advocates worry that the available technology is so powerful and privacy laws so lax that some companies will go too far. Counting every keystroke and watching every Web page that pops up on an employee's computer screen could create an oppressive office atmosphere, said George Walls, president of Milwaukee's Local 4603 of the Communications Workers of America.
George Walls, president of Milwaukee's Local 4603 of the Communications Workers of America: 'They are far more aggressive than they ever have been in the past. Virtually every minute of every day they can tell what you are doing. With all the monitoring, it is turning into an electronic sweatshop.'@@@
Without ever leaving their desks, today's workers can transport themselves to an online casino, a shopping bazaar, a porn palace or a rising number of other time-wasting amusements. And corporations are cracking down. More than three-fourths of the nation's major companies monitor employee e-mails, Internet connections and computer files, a figure that has doubled since 1997, according to the American Management Association.
How far should companies go with cybersnooping to counter cyberslacking? They shouldn’t go anywhere at all. Stop wasting money on crappy software that puts your workers in chains. If a worker is spending too much time on the Internet their co-workers and managers will know because, hey, they won’t be doing any work! Otherwise Internet usage is a bonus of working in a battery farm. Like taking a pen or the odd useful envelope home. It’s not like they’re planning to overthrow the company they work for, or shag the MD’s wife.
While they agree the risks are real, worker advocates worry that the available technology is so powerful and privacy laws so lax that some companies will go too far. Counting every keystroke and watching every Web page that pops up on an employee's computer screen could create an oppressive office atmosphere, said George Walls, president of Milwaukee's Local 4603 of the Communications Workers of America.
George Walls, president of Milwaukee's Local 4603 of the Communications Workers of America: 'They are far more aggressive than they ever have been in the past. Virtually every minute of every day they can tell what you are doing. With all the monitoring, it is turning into an electronic sweatshop.'@@@
