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Should Companies Monitor their Employees Social Media?

Once an employee is awarded the chance of being part of an organization, they have a responsibility on their shoulders to perform according to the best of their ability. Other than this, it must be known that it is a career being developed and while at work, there is a lot of monitoring that goes on which then translates to the grouping of employees into different job categories. It is through these categories that a certain employee is rated as a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 out of five. To be the best in performance in the respective organization that an individual is working for, they have to stand out from the crowd and be their own individual, carrying and developing their own brand.

Now social media through the social network is an avenue of an individual deciding the kind of life they want to live. When such an individual is employed, it has to be noted that moderation is a must for them since there are instances which could lead them straight into problems with the management over the use of social media. This is where employers start to get the idea of wanting to monitor the social media activities of their employees, which is a bad thing if the employee is aware, but bad if they have no knowledge of it. That is exactly what we are going to discuss here, the monitoring of employees’ social media activities without their consent yet it is common etiquette to notify them a system check is being done so that every activity an employee does is recorded within the organization.

This ethical issue is something which happens all the time, and no one can talk about it given that it leads to a dilemma which involves the harassment of junior members of the staff most of the time. It is no doubt that employees have to maintain a good and clean conduct, which is always referred to when warding promotions or pay rise. Legally, employers have the right to monitor any of their employees at any given time and it be with a reason that is genuine, not a hidden agenda or when one has a personal vendetta towards an employee. However, it is important to note that this monitoring has to happen at given instances where the employer could be doubting what is being done by the employee goes beyond their legal rights. That is to say, when the communication of an employee is being monitored, it has to originate from a point of there being an illegal conduct and it is the employee who is engaging in it.

The dilemma of harassment comes in when an employer decides to take advantage of the situation or when another employee is in-charge of monitoring their co-workers and it dawns on them that they have a case to report. This is the point where guiltiness starts eating them citing that they could be seen as individuals who are after attention and just want to cause trouble for others. Here the dilemma is in the hands of those who come up with the drafting of company policies meant to resolve such situations whereby they should not be favoring a certain group of individual(s).

Reference

Debate.org. (017). Should employers monitor their employees’ social media? Retrieved 15 September 2017, from http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-employers-monitor-their-employees-social-media