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With the economic doldrums, it appears that companies are monitoring employees more closely, reports Weekly Playboy (Sept 19).
This is not necessarily insidious; awareness toward the need for compliance in the corporate sector has increased, which means management is obliged to make greater efforts to prevent leakage of data.
But Takeshi Suzuki, secretariat of the Tokyo Managers Union in Yoyogi, says more small- and medium-size businesses have another reason to keep a closer eye on workers.
"They want to downsize their work force and are boosting monitoring activities to find more reasons for dismissal," he says.
In 2007, Suzuki's organization handled 193 employee claims. A year later, in the wake of the "Lehman Shock," the figure had jumped to 344 cases.
According to cyber-maven Masaya Hondo, the monitoring has extended to companies in the IT sector that do business via the Internet.
"Basically, you can break down the monitoring into two main types," Hondo points out. "One is checking the contents of workers' mails and browsing history. The other is 'activity monitoring' that looks at where they go and what they do. For the former, all the mails and so on that are routed via the company's LAN are subject to checks. Likewise, a person in-house might monitor the history of a worker's access to sites on the web, to make sure they are relevant to his work."
A survey released in March 2010 by the quasi-official Institute of Labor Administration reported that 56.8% of the businesses questioned monitored their employees' Internet usage and 40.7% checked mails. And 21.7% of the respondents said they did not bother to notify their workers of the monitoring. (Among small- and medium-size companies, this percentage was slightly higher, at 25.7%.)
The section manager at a large IT company gives an example of his company's policies.
"For example, let's say that an employee uses his computer at work to download a photo of a poster girl from her website," he explains. "Just once or twice, we'll disregard it. But if he repeats it frequently, his supervisor will receive a notice that the employee has been downloading pinup photos of girls in swimsuits, which is not relevant to his work.
"There have been occasions when workers downloading numerous large files slowed down our server operations; there have also been cases where the contents of the downloaded files were pornographic," he added matter-of-factly.
The aforementioned unionist Suzuki recalls one case when his organization pleaded the case of a man who had been summarily dismissed from a well known company.
"During the negotiations, the company representative placed a heaping stack of printouts on table, which they alleged were the hard copies from the sites that the dismissed worker had visited while on company time. Nearly all of them were just news or political commentary.
"Strictly speaking, the worker had indeed visited the sites on company time," Suzuki says. "But he was not even warned once against doing so, and furthermore, the company did not accuse him of frivolous activities like visiting adult sites or shopping online."
Be that as it may, the situation may be getting worse, Suzuki tells the magazine.
"We're hearing more complaints that employers are using security cameras and listening devices in offices. We're concerned that these will be put to use arbitrarily, such as by supervisors who have a personal grudge against their subordinate. In that case, the monitoring goes beyond any legitimate requirements and becomes a tool for intimidation."
Ken Nakamura, a director at The Research Information Center, a licensed private investigative firm, warns that leaving the company won't necessarily get an errant worker off the hook.
"When they undergo background checks by prospective new employers, reports of their alleged misbehavior at their old company can come back to haunt them," he points out.
© Japan Today
29 Comments
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gogogo
china anyone?
pawatan
This is not news, companies have been doing this since there's been internet in offices.
Scrote
I do hope that the "well known company" that dismissed a worker for reading news "on company time" pays its workers in full for all the overtime they do. I wonder if they dock pay for managers who slope off to the smoking room every hour?
nath
I wonder how many of us would get fired for reading JT during working hours?
nath
If you look at the time that people post, most are not during the typical lunch break time here in Japan.
ukguyjp
There may be occasional instances of employees viewing unsuitable materials, but the bottom line, really, is...are you doing your job or not? If you are doing your job well, who cares?
Companies should not pry, and there is already too much invasion of privacy in modern life. As the article says, companies can use the excuse of "monitoring" for "frivolous activities" as an excuse to intimidate and control.
the_sheriff
I read JT mainly while I'm at the office and this is quite annoying because all the URLs contain the article's headline. This makes it hard to click the more interesting (read: seedy) stories for fear of Internet monitoring. JT, please change the URLs to random letters and numbers!!
trinklets2
Because Iam jobless now and I might be wrong but isn't it as soon as you time in, the company pays your time and as such should endevour to use that time for what you are being paid for irregardless whether you are doing your job well or not? More especially if is a regular employee and hence receiving priveleges such as bonuses, retirement plans. Isn't it that workers from even the lowliest to corporate levels are in truth selling their own nombiri time in exchange for money or salary and hence receiving salary while doing nombiri time is okashii desu ne! I wonder if my comment would be deleted again.
steve@CPFC
This is wrong morally,. this is not ofr security in most reasons it is for control of that person. This type of monitoring would have caused riots a few decades ago.
At the moment i am employing three people part time. They have a job to do and if they job gets done what business is it of mine what they are doing while working. One lady seems to be working all day, yet gets the same work done as a gent who is looking at his phone a lot and drinking lots of coffees. Of somebody is failing in their job it can be found out without monitiring. I would expect this type of monotoring of prison workers not civilians, it is morally wrong.
nath
I agree Steve.
NetNinja
Hi guys!! You know I'm on JT M - Sat. All times throughout the day. I need this!!! Yes, I said it. I need JT because I'm alone here and no one can engage me in a debate on topics cause they are not native English speakers.
I see my colleagues reading Japanese newspapers, books. or sometimes chatting amongst themselves.
My thing is JT and few other sites I like to read. Mostly news. My format is different. I'm not cutting down any trees to get the news. I get my news digitally.
Now here's the kicker. I never use my company's internet. I have my own. It's on my PC which if anybody tried to invade my privacy I could take issue with them.
trinklets2
Might be morally wrong but if I'm the owner of the company and I choose to do it then I don't need anyone who won't oblige by my rules. I once worked in a company with an installed security camera at the gate, entrance of the building ,along the corridors and inside the factory itself. These I considered ok. When one time a new camera was installed in the breaktime lounge where I always had my lunch alone at first, I couldn't resist making some cheers sign in front of the camera. Whoever was assigned to monitor it had boring time so I think. Would my comment be deleted again?
nath
I agree.
If I am a business owner and pay you for XX hours of work I expect to get a FULL return, overtime should be a no-no unless a worker is overworked or under-trained for the assigned work-load.
Not paying you to goof off on FB, forums, etc when you could be making me more money or improve your skills via studies, etc.
My last company you had to ask for access to the net for researches, etc and it got removed once you were finished. E-mail got through but was monitored for private usage.
FYI, this was in japan.
Spidapig24
It"S ME
Why as an employee can l not have access to internet, so long as my work is done on time, and to standard what is wrong with taking a 5 minute break and checking the news or sport or sending family an email. Does it really hurt so long as the work is getting done. It is about both parties the employer and employee both being trusting and giving a bit of leeway. If the employee is not pulling his or her weight then counsel them, monitor their usage but if they are working and meeting deadlines then does it really hurt?
Of course it was. Most other countries allow a little bit of private email afterall you spend most of your life at work. Some companies l have worked for in the past had partial internet, things like banking, news, sports results, government sites etc. The reason for this was they realised that the employees where at work during business hours and rather than take time off to go to the bank let them do it from their desk. The employees realised as long as the work got done and internet wasnt abused you could jump online and see whats going on in the world. From what l have seen of Japanese business this is an alien concept, employees lives revolve around the company and nothing else matters.
lucabrasi
@It"S ME
You say that like it's a good thing.
Time and time again, research has shown that if a company treats its workers with mistrust, antagonism and and an overly-controlling attitude, it loses big time. The good workers quit and find a friendlier environment while the bad workers stay and do all they can to undermine their bosses.
Don't ever be a business owner is my advice.
nath
lucabrasi.
The rules would be made clear and they would need to sign on the bottom-line for a contract.
Employment is a contract where both employer and employee agree on the terms before-hand in the contract, neither would an employee be refused to leave if his mind changes or he prefers different terms.
Same as in any company I worked for European, USA, Japanese I was expected to do a certain amount of work, skill-advancements/courses every year(paid by company). Now if I performed above that expected target = promotion, raises, etc.
Isn't that the idea of capitalism?
steve@CPFC
Respect your workers and you will get respect back. If you trust them not to take the mickey they usually will not. Monitoring overly makes the environment dark and unfriendly. Studies have shown that these tactics lead to poor productivity and high staff turnover.
It has also been shown that those on minimum wage are often very unhappy and find work a chore, if given slightly more responsibility and higher wages the extra productivity pays for itself. Everyone is a winner.
When you employ you must treat with respect and how you would like to be treated yourself. many take issues with my values but when it comes to work what matters is we are all able to talk about anything, without bullying or monitoring. A workplace that is like a prison is unhealthy.
nath
@steve.
What you are saying is a given for ANY employer. Neither did I state anywhere that I would hire at minimum wages, etc.
I worked for some top-level international companies and the rules were tough.
steve@CPFC
it'sME; But it is not a given, that is the problem. These days employment protection laws are weak and terms of contract can be changed with notice especially for lower skilled workers on yearly contracts. I wasn't mentioning anyone when i referred to minimum wages just stating how wages and responsibility also contribute to the workplace environment.
trinklets2
Even if you just check your mail during the 10 minute breaktime using the company's computer, wouldn't that hurt? It's like stealing. Granted you did it for a minute or two Mon thru Fri for several years, how much would that be? Unless of course you're checking your mails and news alerts via your cellphones during breaktimes who are we to bother you. Yes you can do it provided you are able to finish your job on time. But then again most salaries are calculated on a per day basis which to me means a salary for an 8 hour day work. So if you are able to finish the required 8 hour work earlier because of efficiency /diligence, still morally wrong to do nombiri time. The best is to busy oneself with company related preoccupations. Well so much for my ideas. The bottomline is I'm out of work again. lol
nath
Trinklets2
Sorry, to hear that.
As I said people that perform over agreed/expected terms will get the raises, etc.
trinklets2
Besides, respecting is not getting something that is not meant for you. Companies have two 10-minute breaktimes, one in the am and another in the pm. Aside from the 1-hour lunch break . Surfing for news or checking e mails during those periods is ok so I think. In between is plain stealing. And why do you think monitoring came about ? It's because there are rats who play when the cat is away. For me, I won't bother those security cameras as long as it's not in the toilets or changing rooms. Iam doing my work to the best I can and whoever is monitoring my movements is also doing his job too. The hell I care as long as it's not in the toilets or changing rooms. That ios respect in my point of view.
nath
trinklets2.
Those systems can be time-controlled, as can be access to the internet and the computer systems overall. Common features for a few decades now.
johnnyG
My employer has never made use of this tracking, and I'm not sure if they're even doing it or not. Still, better safe than sorry.
Question: What kind of browser traces are observable from visiting a secure site (https)? After login, isn't what you do there very much opaque to anyone watching? I'd guess an employer might know something like the top domain and duration of your visit, but not much else.
nath
johnnyG.
Anything you post or read(packages like for cel-phones) gets parsed via the internet/email router of your company and they do keep a trace(needed in case a connection drops, etc) and the whole traffic is visible as it is on other internet servers. That is how police, etc track stuff, each package has a LOT of info that is not usually shown.
Dead easy to install snooper that searches for certain stuff, as for encryption(IT guys wrote/created those fairly easy to undo). Remember anything the is encrypted also needs to be decrypted on the other side.
BTW, the tracking is 100% transparent you might just not be told about it.
warnerbro
I don't know about you, mates, but I'm doing research.
Asagao
I've always used cameras in my business. I have one in full view of staff and customers, and 2 hidden ones. I caught one staff stealing money and another drinking at my company.