Workplace Monitoring Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Workplace Monitoring - Assignment Example However, I find this notion to be overly apologist. The fact that employers are legally allowed to infringe on the private space of their workers is a reflection of a lack of trust that typifies modern society. Also, who monitors those who do the monitoring? It is hard to imagine that the workplace behavior and activities of senior management are monitored to the degree that their subordinates’ are. In the wider scheme of things, I would argue that unless a company‘s area of operations involves processes that are highly sensitive, then it is better to cultivate trust among employees and between employees and management. In this context, I base my premise on the labeling theory championed by Howard Becker. According to Becker, labels and stereotypes are instrumental in creating deviance where none should exist (Repa & Guerin 14). In this paper, workplace monitoring can be viewed as a typecast that generalizes all employees as untrustworthy. Ultimately, some employees will internalize this â€Å"label† and fight it by doing that which monitoring is supposed to negate. Finally, although the methods of workplace monitoring (e.g., video surveillance, background checks, email access and internet logs, phone tapping and phone log recording, etc.) can be used with positive intentions, their requirements are normally flaunted by employers. Workplace monitoring, if used, shou ld be limited to improving employee productivity. However, if designed strictly to keep employees on a tight leash then it defeats its rationale.