Ethics of monitoring employee email in the workplace

Ethics of Monitoring E-Mail

The impact of electronic mail monitoring on the productivity of workers globally, in addition to its impact on their relative levels of stress, sense of and ability to have personal privacy, all interrelate to their morale and sense of ownership workers have regarding their jobs. E-mail monitoring is perceived by many employees as negative, intrusive and illustrating how far the lack of trust between employers and employees has progressed. As a result, excessive e-mail monitoring is seen as intrusive, illegal and lacking in the necessary level of trust that is critical for any organization to get the highest level of performance for their employees. The paradox of e-mail monitoring however is the fact that companies do have the legal obligation to monitor e-mail to ensure that legal liabilities are minimized by quickly stopping unauthorized use of e-mail systems being used for distributing inappropriate content.

As much as many employees dislike the thought of their e-mails being monitored, it is essential for many companies to engage in this practice as it can drastically reduce their legal liability (Wakefield, 2004). Policies are becoming commonplace as a result. The paradox of e-mail and Internet monitoring within corporations is on the one hand anchored by the many legal precedents of corporations being held liable for their employee's illegal activity (Wakefield, 2004) yet too much constraints on this and other forms of communication directly impact their performance and morale. Intermediating these two extremes is the role of education to provide the necessary insights into why specific safeguards are critical for ensuring the corporation does not inadvertently expose itself to legal risks by being too loose with policies yet concentrating enough on privacy and ethicacy issues of employees so as not to hinder their productivity and ownership of their jobs. Balancing the rights of any corporation to monitor e-mail traffic needs to be balanced against the rights of individuals to privacy.