As stated in the lecture, workplace surveillance is an example of organizations as instruments of domination. New communication technologies allow organizations to monitor employee computers from the moment those computers are booted up to the moment they're shut down. Cells phones and pagers provide another avenue for organization to montor employee behavior and keep surveillance is intrusive and causes employees' social and mental stress.
I think workplace surveillance is a great idea because it gives employees a sense of respect. Some employees tend to do other things at work and still expect to get paid for the work that they're supposed to do even when they're not doing it. It also allows the company to make sure that the employees are doing the correct thing when dealing with company work. Without it, we would have to rely on the honor method and sometimes people do not work with that (which is sad). It also ensures that everything in the workplace is going well. For example, since I work at the bank, camers are all over the place. We got robbed a few months ago and were able to capture the victim with the help of the cameras. Without the cameras, we wouldn't have been able to catch and ensure safety for all our employees and customers.
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While I understand why you think workplace surveillance is good, I believe it is a bit of an overkill at times. I understand in like banks the cameras, some monitoring of information. However, some companies don't necessarily need so much surveillance. Yes, employees tend to slack off, but surveillance isn't going to stop them from slacking off either. Most companies claim they are doing this for their protection--to keep trade secrets or other confidential information inside the company. But they don't need to get as intrusive as they do. If they don't want their employees to use the internet for "fun", put a filter on common sites. But don't sit there and monitor the computers to make sure the filter isn't being broken down, or there are other avenues to get around the filter etc. Its overkill. To monitor phones, unless its a department that maintains information that should be monitored (customer service calls, or departments with real information) then don't monitor the phones. And pagers! Ha, they are just making sure you don't receive pages from people you aren't suppose to (ie Family). OK well thats overkill. How about showing some faith and respect in your employees. Protect the companies assets, don't intrude on the employees 'personal' time. In every company, to make a happy employee, the employee should be allowed to sit back during their 10 min break and call their family, zone out in solitaire, whatever. Give the employee some respect, give them some personal privacy and youll have happy employees. Otherwise, you can probably kiss your employees good bye. Thats my opinion.
I had the opposite view of workplace surveillance, but your post made me think. Employees would feel that it's unfair when they're doing the work, and their coworker is slacking off. In this situation, I think surveillance is a good idea.
However, I have to agree with paula that it can be overkill. If an employee happened to be on Myspace doing research or promotions, would they be talked to? Their activity would have to be very closely monitored to see what was work-related and what wasn't - and I don't like such a strict level of surveillance.
I think surveillance at your job is great and I can respect that you find it a good thing but however I do believe some organizations go overkill with it. For example I work at a Veterans Hospital which is a government operated hospital. They just about surveillance every single little thing we do and it's horrible. They check our websites daily and post a top 10 abusers list every week and notify the Hospital Police which I think is crazy. They also monitor our outgoing calls and how many minutes we are on the phone. I get routine visits from the VA campus police just to "check in". I think surveillance to a point is a great but I feel like I am working in a bubble and every move I make is watched by a higher power.
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