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No

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Absolutely not. The employer has no right to snoop on the employee. The relationship between an employer and employee is one of trust. If it is missing then there is no meaning in the relationship.

I can understand concern of employers that an employee will be spending time on the internet without doing their job. Nothing can be more misplaced. Look at it this way, everybody works to earn their livelihood. If a person spends his time surfing without working then he does not deserve the job. People will do their job responsibly. Anybody who has work on his hand with a deadline to meet will never spend time on the internet.

On the other hand if a person meets his deadline and has some time on his hand then the employer should not grudge the person surfing the net. By the way have you ever seen an employee at Walmart, Costco or other stores surfing the net without attending to the customer? On the other hand you may have seen executives talking on the phone or chatting with their colleagues without attending to customers. In such case these activities should be monitored as well.

Having said that let me also mention that it is absolutely not acceptable for an employee to view pornography sites or do anything else that hampers the work environment. Similarly other socializing sites like Myspace, Orkut may be considered as untouchable in office. Some companies consider email sites untouchable as well. This does not give the employer license to monitor the employees' Internet use. There are tools and means of blocking such undesirable sites. If implemented they will prevent employees from going onto those sites without the employer having to monitor its usage.

While this applies to Internet it equally applies to those who spend hours chatting around the coffee machine and the printer or are perpetually on the cellphone. Some do it so loudly that the entire office gets to know the personal experiences of the person. Also employers will have to start monitoring extended lunch hours taken by employees. It may be necessary to monitor official calls or interactions. But that is more due to business reasons with the intention of improving the customer experience.

In conclusion, it must be realized that limited Internet use at office should be acceptable to employers. For monitoring is like a disease, if left undiagnosed, it can get out of hand. If left unchecked there will soon be restrictions at the workplace on other activities as well like chatting, talking on the cell phone, gossiping on the phone, talking to visitors etc. etc.

If such restrictions are implemented then the workplace will no longer be an enjoyable place instead it will turn into a prison and no employee would want to work at such a place. The modern thinking is to turn workplace into a fun place so that employees relish the experience and want to work at the place by choice.

Learn more about this author, Saurabh Pal.
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