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every year. It is particularly prevalent in the insurance, telecommunications and
banking industries. Employer eavesdropping on electronic mail transfer is also
widespread and currently not banned by federal wiretapping law (Kling, 1996).
The key in this issue is the trade off between productivity versus employee comfort
and morale. There isn’t much doubt that monitoring will improve employee output,
but at what cost? Workers may be under more stress and may generally be more
edgy while at work. Employees may dread coming in to work, and absenteeism may
be more frequent. It is more effective to have employees that want to be there and
are comfortable working in their environments. The benefits of employee monitor-
ing can be achieved by proper supervision from management. If the employer must
secretively listen in on conversations or read employee e-mail, then he/she really
doesn’t know the worker too well and should get to know them better. On the other
hand, one can also argue that reading employees’ e-mail or eavesdropping on their
telephone calls is not an invasion of worker privacy because, after all, they are being
paid for working. Employers have the right to determine if the employee is not
meeting expectations (Hubbart, 1998).
The issue of e-mail and e-mail monitoring has received a great deal of
attention, both in the media and in legal writing, especially in the United States.
Moreover, with increasing frequency, employers and employees alike are
seeking answers to the question: may employers legally monitor employee e-
mail and Internet use? A 1999 American Management Association (AMA)
survey reveals that 67.3% of major U.S. firms monitor their employees by
reviewing their e-mail, tracking their Internet usage, looking over their phone
logs or even installing video cameras. And they often do this without letting their
employees know. The computer, the telephone lines and the office space all
belong to the company, and the company has a legal right to monitor its own
property. Managers can use them as grounds to fire someone.
The forms of surveillance that employers use are diverse, generally inexpensive
and are likely being used at the office. Several software can track the network server
for keywords and if found can pass on the related material to the management. This
kind of surveillance has become quite common in many companies. At times,
management has taken harsh actions by firing the employee who was found to be
spending a lot of time on e-mail and Internet use. All this monitoring may seem