Since the ‘80s, electronic monitoring is rapidly becoming popular in today’s workplace. “According to a survey by the American Management Association, 78% of major U.S.

firms reported active surveillance of employee activities during the year 2000” (“More Companies,” 2001). Technological advances are key reasons for the uprising in electronic monitoring. Monitoring telephone conversations has become more advanced. Employers can also purchase software that can monitor employee E-mail use, web sites visited, and what computer files the employee has accessed. Video surveillance is also becoming more and more hi-tech. Cameras are so small and easy to install that they may be hidden anywhere and in anything. Electronic monitoring of employees actions may be used in nearly all companies today.

Today’s society is becoming more and more dependant upon the use of technology. Because of this, more businesses are going to start monitoring the progress of its employees. “The Internet has been in the workplace only a few years but already 30 percent of U.S. companies say they have fired employees for Internet abuse” (Smith, 2000;para 7).Some employers take advantage of the fact that there are few laws that help protect employees from this monitoring and they should be punished for going overboard. More laws need to be developed that protect privacy rights and harsher penalties should be applied to those who break the law. Electronic monitoring is here to stay and the workplace may never be “private” again, but, misuse of monitoring devices should suffer the consequences.

Telephone monitoring. Telephone monitoring is one of the most common forms of employee monitoring and surveillance. Employers monitor telephone conversations to monitor the phone activity of the employee and the customer. They monitor the employee because an uprising problem in companies is the expenses associated with personal phone calls. Employers feel that while at work, employees shouldn’t do their job and avoid personal calls unless in an emergency situation. Customer calls are monitored to assure that the conversation is valuable to the problem. Almost every company that has automated phone services for customer care will make a statement during a call that, in some way, says that the call may be recorded to assure quality service. This statement is usually used as a legal disclaimer. Telephone monitoring also includes the recording of time, duration, and destination of employees’ phone calls and the contents of employee voice mail messages.

There are several things that both employers and employees can do about workplace privacy. The law both protects and punishes employers as well as employees. When dealing with telephone usage, employers may monitor employee conversations with customers. “Federal law states that once the employer real

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