At Work

Archive for February, 2008

Big Brother and other workplace surveillance

Add comment February 28th, 2008

I hope you’re not reading this while you’re at work.

Because if you are, your employer could be watching. Actually, there’s a two-in-three chance your company is looking over your shoulder. Sixty-six percent of employers say they’re monitoring workers’ Internet connections and 65 percent say they block access to certain Websites, according to an annual electronic surveillance survey by the American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute.

It’s no surprise that 96 percent of employers who block content are concerned about employees visiting adult sites. Other concerns include game sites (61 percent), social networking sites (50 percent) and entertainment sites (40 percent). Only 27 percent were worried about online shopping or auction sites and one in five cared about sports sites.

The poll of 304 U.S. companies also found that 28 percent of employers have fired workers for email misuse. Violations of company policy led to 64 percent of dismissals and inappropriate or offensive language was included in 62 percent of firings. Using company email too often for personal messages led to only a quarter of terminations, so most employers don’t care much if you’re corresponding with buddies.

To read the entire release, visit here.

Making work easier on working parents

1 comment February 5th, 2008

Lots of companies are making it easier to work while raising kids, according to a survey commissioned by a staffing agency.

More than three in five companies surveyed have made policy changes in the last five years to accommodate working parents, according to OfficeTeam.

The survey was given to 150 randomly selected senior executives at largest 1,000 U.S. companies: 62 percent said their companies had made changes, 33 percent said no and 5 percent weren’t sure.

These kinds of perks — telecommuting, flex time, extended family leave — are fast becoming industry standards as more folks demand a “work-life balance.” It’s a buzzword that’s getting tossed around HR circles a lot lately, but it basically seems to mean that the incoming generation of professionals just won’t work 60 hours a week to accumulate toys. In fact, when people say that this next generation won’t make as much money as its forebears, I sometimes wonder whether that will be as much a sign of economic instability or a conscious choice of individuals.

Here’s an example: I have a old friend right now who quit his stable government job last year and is now traveling through Africa. He just doesn’t see work as an end in itself; he’d rather just work for a while, then do what he wants to do, then come back to work only when finances require it.