Employee Monitoring

CWmike writes "Michael Workman, an associate professor at the Florida Institute of Technology's Nathan M. Bisk College of Business, estimates that monitoring responsibilities take up at least 20% of the average IT manager's time. Yet most IT professionals never expected they'd be asked to police their colleagues and co-workers in quite this way. How do they feel about this growing responsibility? Workman says he sees a split among tech workers. Those who specialize in security issues feel that it's a valid part of IT's job. But those who have more of a generalist's role, such as network administrators, often don't like it. Computerworld contributor Tam Harbert found a wide variety of viewpoints from IT managers, ranging from discomfort at having to 'babysit' employees to righteous beliefs about 'protecting the integrity of the system.'"

Comments

Know when

[Dyinobal]

You have to know when to police people. For example I only talk to people when their porn viewing habits get so strange that it started to expose the company to all sorts of lawsuits.

Re:Know when

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to have to browse porn at work - I worked on a porn links directory...

I also had to monitor employees in case they visited accountancy or crochet pattern sites, the filthy beggars!

Re:Know when

[russotto]

As part of our computer usage policy, anyone getting internet access must agree to express conditions of using it, for example no file downloads, no porn, no webmail etc. We monitor usage in co-ordination with blocking software to ensure compliance with this policy to ensure the safety of not just the IT infrastructure but also the companies regulatory, compliance and law requirements

My company has a very strict policy as well. You're expected as a condition of employment to acknowledge that you may end up seeing stuff that will burn your eyeballs out and that you're OK with that. Then you can access the whole Internet.

Re:Panopticon is here to stay

[Anonymous Coward]

In the next step, computers are used to analyse images from private bedrooms and bathrooms.

I can see it now ... "How dare you say I've not got much to hide!"

BOFH

[dkleinsc]

The real problem with official monitoring duties is that you have to send the results to management instead of the local newspaper, or maybe a television show.

Re:As an IT Manager for a small company

[Anonymous Coward]

I consider it my network (and care about it)

Hey, Terry Childs, how ya been, man?

Get the *real* security to do it.

[6Yankee]

At my last place, I'd often work a bit of overtime in the evenings, and I came to know the security guards quite well. I had to walk past the block they were based in, so I'd always pop in and say hello (and usually ended up chatting for an hour or more).

By contrast, there was some shiny-suit type in that same building who, if he even acknowledged the guard's existence, would give him (and me) a filthy look and keep walking. Naturally, one guard started wondering what use this guy was... and filmed him through the window, from the CCTV camera on the opposite building. For an hour. On overtime. Surfing porn. I didn't see Shiny-Suit Guy after that.

Moral: if you're going to misbehave at work, keep Security sweet :)

Listen to the BOFH

[SnugglesTheBear]

If the BOFH has taught the IT world anything, it's to always monitor your co-workers. This provides potential means for extortion if there would ever be talk about you being fired or replaced as well as an easy and effective way to climb to the top at startling speeds.