Does your employer have the right to know what you’re doing when you’re not in the office?
Most of us have a visceral negative reaction to that question. We might take umbrage that they don’t trust us, or shout about Big Brother. Yet almost two-thirds of us say there’s at least one thing we do during the workday we’d be embarrassed by if our employers found out. What seems like a fairly simple question becomes complicated very quickly.
According to a survey by Forbes Advisor, forty three percent of workers report that their employers regularly monitor their online activity.
Some of the responses are predictable:
- Sixty percent of respondents say online monitoring hurts their productivity and nearly half say it hurts company morale
- Fifty-nine percent believe there are ethical concerns with monitoring all online activity during work
- Just over twenty six percent say they’d just quit if they knew their online activity was being monitored
But what about the right of the employer to ensure the work they pay for gets done? That’s where things get sticky. There are a number of complicated questions that arise:
- When does the desire to ensure productivity tip over into draconian tactics that hurt morale and lead to unproductive behaviors?
- With so many people using personal devices for work, the line between what is work time and what’s personal time gets awfully blurry, awfully fast. Does the fact you shopped on Amazon for ten minutes mean that report won’t get done on time?
- Can the monitoring software tell the difference between when you’re taking a break and when you’re actually working? Heck, can any of us tell anymore?
This problem has a few core challenges to address, but two stick out:
- Where is the moral line between employers expecting value for the salaries they pay and their right to intrude into the personal lives, and even homes, of their workers?
- Is employee activity what should be measured at all?
Whether you’re working from home or across the aisle from your boss, nobody likes to be micromanaged or feel they aren’t trusted. But trust is earned. If your work isn’t getting done, it’s a natural human reaction to wonder what the heck is going on.
In order to prevent mistrust and the negative management behaviors that go along with it, we need to shift from simply monitoring activity (The important thing to know isn’t if the person logged onto their computer by nine am? The real proof of work is in the outputs. An acceptable amount and quality of work done in the time expected should be more important than if someone checks Facebook while taking a mental break.
Of course, this also means that there’s a responsibility on the part of the employee. Righteous indignation is irrelevant if the quality of your work slips, or you’re not performing your expected duties.
When there are big changes in how work gets done, it’s natural that the pendulum would swing between not paying attention (and lost productivity, quality or profits) and micromanaging, which can also kill productivity, turnover or retention.
Employers have the right to expect value for their investment, and people deserve not to feel like they’re under a microscope all the time. Both sides bear some responsibility for striking the balance that makes the most sense.
0 comments