I just read an article about snooping bosses and I reflected about the power bosses have. With modern technologies your mobile phone can work as a GPS so your boss can watch you 24 hours a day. I think this is terrible. You will not have any private life. Your boss knows everything you do and where you are. Even if you don’t do anything illegal it isn’t ok to let the boss know everything. Is it for example right that the boss knows when you visit a doctor?
The increased surveillance is a question about distrust. The boss doesn’t believe the employees do a good job. I think this hurts the relationship and also the working environment. But the employees also have responsibility, when you are at work you are expected to work. If every employee works when they are supposed to, I don’t think this discussion would have ever started.
I worked at the minimarket in a camping one summer a few years ago. The boss was very suspicious and distrusted us. She installed security cameras in the minimarket to minimize the shopliftings but at the same time said: “So I can see that you are working”. It was meant as a joke but I don’t think it was really. Even if we worked as hard as we could, I was afraid that she would come and tell us to work harder.
I think this surveillance can be a good thing in some circumstances. For example, when the boss can see what webpages the employees visit and what phone calls they make during working hours. Nowadays many people work in offices in front of a computer. It will cost the company large amount of money if the employees surf the web instead of working.
The author also wrote about blogs and Facebook. My opinion is that you shouldn’t write anything on Facebook or your blog that you couldn’t say to anybody. If you don’t have the courage to say to your boss that you don’t like him or her, don’t write it on Facebook either. But I don’t think it is right that the boss can use program that track the webpages you visit at home.
When I read what I have been writing it almost sounds like I think that everybody can do everything and that this is ok. Of course not, but I think that if you do something illegal, such as downloading child pornography, outside the job it is a police case not something concerning your boss. It might result in losing your job and having problem finding a new one.
