Week 3, Web Lecture, Post 3: Workplace Surveillance

In Professor Cyborg's web lecture on Theory, Metaphors and Organizations, she discusses Workplace Surveillance. I mentioned in a previous post that large black orbs attached to the ceilings possibly encased cameras that were used (if they existed) to monitor workplace activity at my last job. In regards to employee computer monitoring, I'm sure the company's IT department had the capability of doing so. I remember a new hire once asking me if it was okay that she uses the internet to check her personal email since she was a volunteer for a non-work related organization in which she needed to be able to promptly respond. I said I didn't see why not as long as it didn't interfer with her work projects. She mentioned something about internet usage monitoring and I assured her that as long as she wasn't sitting there reading tabloid news for 8 hours a day, no one would care that she kept her personal email open to check her inbox periodically.

For a year before I got my first corporate job, I was assigned to a lot of temp positions that involved data entry or other assignments that had computer access. I was always told at the beginning of my first day that internet usage was monitored and the company was not hesitant to terminate someone for inappropriate internet usage or prolonged internet usage for personal or entertainment purposes. I didn't know if this was true or not but I never felt the need to upset the powers that be by pushing my luck with internet usage.

Blackberries were the norm at my last job; everyone had one as they were company issued. People were allowed to keep their cell phone number and have access to company emails. I didn't need one because my job didn't require that I have one but I thought that if I ever had the chance to get a company Blackberry, I would pass. Since the company paid the phone bill on these phones, they would also get records of every call made as well as the possibility of text message access. It wasn't that I was doing anything suspicious or criminal that made me paranoid about having the company see my phone records, it was the fact that they COULD see my phone records that I thought was intrusive.