Should Employers Monitor Their Employees Essay Example

In the Atlantic article, “The Employer-Surveillance State” Ellen Ruppel Shell presents that bosses are spying more on their employees by using technology. Some believe that one benefit of monitoring employees is it causes them to work faster because watching them helps them use their time better. However, Shell argues that people are quitting their jobs because management is tracking them. Some drawbacks of monitoring employees are increasing stress for workers, making them feel they are not trusted by the owners, arguing and causing workless because they feel upset. Employers should not monitor their employees because is uncomfortable and it would be an invasion of privacy. 

First, employers should not need to monitor their employees because it will be uncomfortable. The employees will not know when they are being watched and will make them to have fear because they can get in trouble. Employees also will not know who is watching when they work. It will make them feel that they are unsafe on working a place where they are getting watched. Michel Anteby from Boston University illustrates this by saying “They try to never speak up, never stick out, do nothing that might get noticed by the management. This leads to a vicious cycle, whereby management grows more suspicious and feels justified in ratcheting up the surveillance” (Para 3). Even though, I believe that employers should trust more on their employees because it’s not right that they need to be recorded on each step they do. 

Second, employers should not need to monitor their employees because it will be invasion of privacy.  The employers don’t have the rights to be going in other people’s privacy. For example, Facebook, snapchat, or twitter accounts should not be available to bosses.  Employees have the right to speak and protect their lives from other strange people. Shell interviewed a worker name Jason Edward Harrington, from O’Hare international Airport in Chicago who worked for six years as luggage screening checkpoint. He says, “If they trusted us, respected us, you could really enjoy the job” (Para 1). What he means is that bosses are not trusting their employees if an item gets lost they can get blame them. Also, employers are using technology to use it as a weapon to investigate on their employees and use their privacy. In the article, it talks about a case where a person was executive at a money transfer. She claimed she had been fired for disabling an app and she used it to track the employees by using a GPS and even when they were off work. This problem was faced on to a court. For my opinion, reading this case it creep me out hearing how this person use her cellphone to hack other people information.

Some may say monitoring will save the businesses money because it will decrease stealing. However, businesses may lose money by just adding surveillance. This is a problem because monitoring equipment is expensive. For example, employers are paying a technician to install the cameras and having insurance for the business in case something happens. Andrew McAfee, MIT researcher says, “That installing spy software was part of a larger commitment on the part of management to organize and streamline operations” (Para 7). McAfee says, that management are paying to install a technology that can spy without getting caught. Businesses may get sued by their employees because they don’t have the permission or the right to violate other people’s privacy, getting sued will be expensive. For example, going thru their employee personal accounts or even hacking their cellphone to go thru their stuff without getting caught. Also, good employees may quit because they don’t feel comfortable where their own boss is having surveillance on them while they work. 

In conclusion, monitoring employees will increase on stress on workers. And employers should not monitor on their employees because it’s uncomfortable and it invade on other people’s privacy. It will matter because it’s not right that businesses do these stuff to their employees just to get more money out of it.