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Usage of the Internet in the workplace has become more and more common as the years go by. The argument I usually hear to justify this monitoring is there is rampant abuse by the employees. Really now. Does anyone think that prior to addition of computers in the workplace, employees used to be 100% productive?

Where does one draw the line? What about the time smokers spend each day, smoking while on the job? Are they made to work longer than non-smokers to keep things fair? What about going to the bathroom? Should that be monitored to make sure the employee goes the the bathroom and back without stopping to shoot the breeze with friends or co-workers? How about monitoring lunch breaks to make sure no extra time is spent? Or recording where folks go with company vehicles to make sure no personal errands are done on company time? How about recording all phone calls made on company office or cell phones to ensure only company business is done?

A long time I realized that the integrity of any system is a function of the inhabitants' willingness to live by the rules. In other words, you can have as many rules as you want, monitor as much as you want but if enough people want to take advantage of the system, they will. Case in point, look at the De Beers Diamond mine where they estimate in spite of the strict security measures taken (internal physical checks before leaving the mines, clothes swap, no outside materials into the mines or out, etc) about 30% of the mine's annual yield is stolen. So no matter what steps are taken to monitor an employee's internet usage, the employer will see little or nothing and will only help to make software companies that sell internet monitoring programs rich.

In my opinion as attractive as this accountability sounds to managers, it will only serve to punish the dedicated workers who aren't abusing the company allowed internet access and make those who do abuse this privilege, more sneaky. Companies spend thousands of dollars to check out an applicant before hiring them and should trust the employee. If they screw up the odds are it will be due to a big mistake they made and will provide sufficient justification for termination.

So monitoring internet usage is like someone once said about teaching a pig to sing. "It's not worth it and will only frustrate you and annoy the pig."

Learn more about this author, R Shimoda.
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