Single question survey - Would you want to work for this company?

I had an issue with that - but it was personal phone calls. And it was like you said, hours in a day. I definately agree there are always some that abuse it. But then you usually know without tracking as their work tends to be below expected quality. Although the tracking gives you some more ammunition when you speak with them or put them on warning.

I'd agree - you have to be careful in companies today regarding all sorts of law suits. We have a very strict policy against any sort of gambling and the company makes it crystal clear. And yet it seems, every year some bonehead or group of idiots think they can run a superbowl square, or college basketball gambling on company time and computer and they question why they get canned.

You guys are completely missing the point. As an IT manager it is certainly not my role to monitor peoples use of their time. The primary motivation for monitoring internet use was the sexual harassment concern. It is an absolutely valid concern that a person may wander past a computer that someone may have on display an objectionable website. It's happened. A company has an obligation to provide a harassment free workplace.For this reason we purchased equipment that would filter such websites. The total cost was less than $10k. Not a huge amount of money.

Stretching this to mean "monitoring employees every move' is a reach. Not true.

You may manage your people however you wish. But if they are using company equipment to spend 3 hours browsing web sites that are not appropriate in a workplace, then I question your effectiveness at the management. But you are correct, if an employee wants to use company equipment to balance their checkbook on company time, that is your decision as a manager.

I would not suggest and did not promote micro managing employees. I am not concerned about their wasting time. That is their manager's job. I am concerned about their using company equipment in a way that can get the company sued for a few hundred thousand dollars.

The president of our operation would spend a couple hours each day browsing the Wall Street Journal. Was that part of his job, maybe. I don't care, that is between him and his boss, and posed no risk to the company.

Absolutely. That's why management is exempt. They don't get paid for their time, but for results.

Nah, I get your point and understand your position.

I think there's a big difference between filtering software and a policy of monitoring.

I took a little professional development class called 'the results curve' a few years ago, and one of their main points was that research has shown that people can devote about 40 minutes at a time to an intense project, and that after that, results and effectiveness begin to fall off dramatically as one gets a little tired and the mind wanders.

They actually recommended that every single hour of the day was:

- 40 minutes of individual work on a project
- 10 minutes of collabarative work/emails and calls etc.
- 10 minutes of relaxation

Over the course of a workday that adds up to an hour to an hour and a half of 'relaxation.' You might think that's excessive but they were pretty clear about the fact that this leads to a better overall work product and better environment.

Cycloptichorn

I know. I think that in reality we'd agree on most of this. It's just that in my position I saw a different side of the issue. Like most things, most people are fine, it's a few that try to take advantage of the situation and cause a problem.