One study by the ePolicy Institute found that 85% of employees admit to recreational surfing at work and seventy percent of employees admitted to receiving or sending adult-oriented personal e-mails at work, while 60% admitted to exchanging e-mail that could be considered racist, sexist or otherwise "politically incorrect" (Griffaton pp). In fact most traffic to Internet pornographic sites occurs during regular business hours, probably because Internet connections usually are faster in the workplace (Griffaton pp). Companies have taken note of these statistics and have adopted e-mail and Internet usage policies that contain provisions for continuous or random monitoring of usage (Griffaton pp).
The ePolicy Institute study reports that 77% of employers monitor employees' e-mail and Internet use, in fact, 10% of workers with e-mail and Internet access, roughly 14 million people, are under continuous online surveillance (Griffaton pp). Approximately two thirds of employers have disciplined or terminated employees for violating electronic usage policies (Griffaton pp). Generally, employers monitor employees' e-mail because they wish to maintain their professional reputation and image, and also are concerned with employee productivity and business efficiency, since "cyberslacking accounts for 30 to 40% of lost worker productivity" (Griffaton pp). Therefore, monitoring assists employers in preventing and discouraging sexual or other illegal workplace harassment, defamation, copyright violations from the illegal downloading of software, music and movies, and the deliberate or inadvertent disclosure of trade secrets and other confidential information (Griffaton pp). According to the ePolicy Institute study, 68% of employers that monitor cite legal liability as their primary reason (Griffaton pp).
No federal or state statute currently prohibits employers from monitoring their electronic workplace, and although the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act and similar state laws provide some limitations, these limitations can be overcome in the workplace through various exceptions in the statutes (Griffaton pp). The federal act prohibits the interception of electronic communications such as e-mail and defines "interception" to mean the "contemporaneous acquisition of the communication,"...
In reality, employees have little protection from the monitoring of their workplace electronic communications, for employers can freely obtain copies of e-mails from a network computer or the employee's hard drive without violating the act, and even when an employer intercepts electronic communications, monitoring is permitted when done in the "ordinary course of business" or when the employee has "consented" to it (Griffaton pp). Moreover, few states even require that employers notify their employees of monitoring (Griffaton pp). Although most employers tell their employees that they are being monitored, many employees let their guards down and find themselves the object of disciplinary action (McEvoy pp).
Given the above statistics, employers really have no choice but to monitor their employees' e-mail. E-mail sent from and received in a workplace is not private in the same sense as receiving a letter at home by postal delivery. The computer is owned by the company, and the company pays for Internet access for the purpose of doing business, therefore, e-emails should pertain to business and should be considered by any employee as company property.
Works Cited
Feeley, Stacey A. "E-mail monitoring in the workplace: the good, the bad and the ugly." Defense Counsel Journal. January 01, 2000. Retrieved August 05, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.
Giblin, Patrick. "You never know who might be reading your e-mail.
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. February 10, 2005. Retrieved August 05, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.
Griffaton, Michael C. "Between the devil and the deep blue sea: monitoring the electronic workplace; employers should have detailed, understandable and fair computer, e-mail and Internet usage policies impartially administered." Defense Counsel Journal. January 01, 2003.. Retrieved August 05, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.
McEvoy, Sharlene A. "E-mail and Internet monitoring and the workplace: do employees have a right to privacy?" Communications and the Law.…
