Employees Through The Use Of Video Cameras example essay topic

Should companies be allowed to use hidden cameras and other secret devices to monitor employees at work? This question is a big issue for companies today. Companies wish to protect their assets from employee theft and also assure themselves that employees are working; , not wasting valuable company time. Companies are also videotaping employees to prove that, in some cases, employees were not injured at work, which would save them thousands of dollars in workers compensation cases.

Some companies also monitor employee's conversations and e-mails; they wish to know what employees are discussing among themselves and with other people. Employers also monitor the Internet viewing that their employees are doing, they want to determine if what their employees are looking at is work related. Some employers feel that by videotaping employees secretly they can determine if employees are giving good service to customers. A few employers have gone as far as to install cameras in bathrooms and locker rooms. Employees feel that hidden cameras and other secret devices are an infringement of their privacy.

Should companies trust their employees to work hard and be honest? Should employees be trusted to take good care of customers? Does secretly monitoring employees reduce employee morale to a dangerously low point when they find out they are being taped? Protecting assets from employee theft is a bigger problem for employers than protecting them from customers. Even though shoplifters cost companies around two billion dollars a year, employee theft costs companies even more. Employees know the location of company merchandise and when other employees will be in the areas where high-priced items are.

This enables employees to have a much greater advantage than shoplifters in stealing merchandise. In some retail situations, employees will sell high-priced goods to their friends for low prices. Employees have also collected refunds by using receipts that are left behind by customers. In non-retail situations, employees regularly are suspected of taking assets belonging to the company. In non-retail situations, it is sometimes even easier for employees to steal things since there is no-body watching for shoplifters or other people taking items. Employers feel that the solution to the theft problem is to have hidden video cameras in prime theft areas and by exits to the building, primarily those exits that are not the main exists.

By monitoring these areas secretly, employers can determine who the dishonest employees are and terminate their employment. Employees often feel that if the employers had visible cameras, no one would steal from the company because they would know they were being watched and therefore would eliminate the same problem without causing employees to feel so much like they are being distrusted. Making sure that employees are working and not wasting time is another problem facing employers today. By monitoring employees through the use of video cameras they can determine who is working and who is taking a nap or "surfing" the Internet or carrying on long conversations with their coworkers. The opposing people feel that when you monitor employees to determine their productivity, you are taking away the trust that the company should have in them. They feel that an employee's productivity level should be measured by their output of work, not how "busy" they appear.

Workers compensation cases cost employers thousands of dollars a year. As more and more cases occur, their insurance rates climb higher and higher. Some employers feel that one of the solutions to this problem is to videotape employees secretly. When employees then try to falsely claim that they were injured at work, the employer can prove through the videotapes that the employee is lying.

Visible cameras seem to be a better solution to this problem, since employees would know that they are being taped and therefore would not file false injury claims. So why don't most employers use visible cameras? If employers used visible cameras, then the employees would be able to use the tape to prove in some cases that employee negligence led to their injuries, or that they were indeed injured at work. If the employees don't know the tape is there, they can't use it against their employers. Monitoring employee's conversations and e-mails with coworkers and other people is becoming more common for employers. Employers wish to know if employees are giving away trade secrets or just plain wasting company time with non-work related issues.

People once again, feel that their rights are being violated by this invasion into their privacy. Shouldn't the company trust them to be loyal productive employees? Shouldn't they have the right to an occasionally phone call or e-mail someone on a subject that is non-work related? The long hours that employees work forces them to sometimes conduct personal business at work.

For instance, doctor and dentist's offices are usually open between eight and five. Those hours are the ones most commonly worked by employees. Therefore the only time that most employees can talk to their health care professional is while they are at work. Should employees be forced to take the day off just so they can schedule appointments or consult with their doctor? Monitoring what employees are viewing on the Internet accomplishes a couple of things for employers. First of all, employers feel that they can prevent pornography and other unwanted materials from coming into the workplace, by locating the employees that download that type of material and terminating them.

Removing pornography and other unwanted materials from the workplace can avoid employers many costly harassment lawsuits. Second, many employers feel that this is one of the steps toward conquering the main thing that most employers are striving to prevent, wasting of company time. Of course there are the many software programs that scan what employees are about to look at and blocks access if it is determined to be non-work related. Employees seem to like these better than being monitored; after all when you search the web you usually return hundreds of matches, and usually there are pornographic ones included, even if you aren't looking for them. Does videotaping employees improve customer service?

Many employers say that by secretly taping their employees in action, they can determine whether or they are giving good service to their customers. Employers say that the tapes that they gain can then be used as training tools. They can show the tapes to the employee and then tell the employee how the situation could have been better resolved. Employees feel that once again, this is a violation of their privacy and the trust that their employers should have in them.

One would assume that if a particular employee was giving out bad customer services that customers would complain to management, thereby the cameras are unnecessary. One also has to wonder if management would also use the tapes they shot of employees in customer service situations to reward employees for good customer service. Employee morale is an issue that employers need to look at. Some employees say that they wouldn't mind being taped secretly if they knew that they were.

They don't object so much to the taping as to taping them without their knowledge. Employees feel that they should have certain "rights". They feel violated when their calls are screened and their e-mails are read for content. All of this can lead to very low employee morale. Employees with low morale tend to bring others down with them.

What begins as one unhappy employee can lead to an entire unhappy department, or company. Employees at a company became suspicious when an extraordinary amount of exit signs with 1/4 inch coaxial cable running to them were installed at their company. Closer inspection of those signs showed them to not only point out the way to the exit, but to also have tiny cameras hidden in them that were to watch the workers. Discovering this had a very negative impact on company morale. Do employers consider employee morale when they install these hidden cameras and other secret devices? Privacy is a big issue with employees.

Employers have been found to have installed cameras in bathrooms and locker rooms. Obviously theft is not a problem here, when was the last time you heard about an employee stealing toilets or other bathroom fixtures? What could an employer possibly need with video footage of employees using the bathroom or dressing in the locker rooms? Of course, not all employers that use hidden monitoring devices have placed them in such outlandishly wrong places. There will always be those individuals who will take something and ruin it for the rest. If employers are allowed to have hidden monitoring devices in the workplace, then to keep employees happy, there will need to be rules and guidelines established that would prevent things like videotaping in bathrooms.

Some of the recent lawsuits regarding hidden monitoring devices have helped to set precedence for these rulings to occur. As always, it is impossible to make both sides happy, but regarding this issue it is clear that for now, employers can pretty much do what they want.