Your boss is reading your blog

I read this post by Keith Shaw, Your Boss is Probably Reading Your Blog, at DEMOletter and I thought, well, I hope so. Simpleton that I am sometimes I thought, well why wouldn't that conversation exist between you and your boss? And why would confidentiality be compromised, willingly or maliciously or innocently, in that process? Clearly everyone understands the limits, the boundaries, and what constitutes appropriate conduct and conversation.

Guess not.  Too often people have been motivated to violate that principle. Trust is betrayed, discouraged, unrewarded or just not possible in many companies. And, the impact of such is not communicated completely to all parties. Innocence of youth, failures of management of communication...

Keith references a recent study that found 38.8% of companies with more than 20,000 employees employ staff to read and analyze outgoing email content. Basically they hire people to spy on their staff, on each other. Odd. 17% hired people whose sole job it is to surveil their colleagues.

Imagine this conversation:

Hey, you're the new guy/girl. What do you do here? 

Oh. I read your email and listen to your phone calls to see if you're discussing things you shouldn't.

Huh. Have I ever?

No. But you probably will, at least that's the sentiment of management. I mean...you're an employee. You can't be trusted...at least that's what they think.

Here's some stats from that study that support that.

30% of the largest firms have had employee emails subpoenaed in the past 12 months.

27% have fired an employee for violating email policies in the past 12 months.

What we have here is a failure to communicate. Somewhere there's a breakdown of communication that costs everyone a lot of money, headaches, reputations, jobs and careers.

I'm wondering if these same companies that invest in resources to monitor their staff instead invested in resources to open dialogue, create trust and connection, loyalty from both sides...what would happen then? Would they need to monitor email and phone calls?

I wonder what it communicates to employees to know their company distrusts them so much that they monitor their communications...cause it's only a matter of time, you know?

Our company is small. We hire and keep only those we can trust, who trust us, who communicate well with everyone, who are adults, who understand the impact of discussing confidential information around the community, virtual or not.

I'm willing to bet, in fact I know, there have been breaches. But then these people are no longer here. Not for violating the trust. But ultimately, they're no longer here for being indifferent to their colleagues, not pulling their weight, serving as a distraction and needing to be somewhere else. And their decision to share corporate secrets was merely one symptom.

I don't have a solution, especially for large corporations. It's a lot of work to maintain communication and connection today. I'm learning every day.

The costs are far greater if I choose to not constantly work at keeping, pushing, insisting, allowing, open communication. Then my day and budgets are spent controlling, and surveiling and tracking and punishing. Oh, like a lot of companies. What a waste of time. 

It's a societal problem, really. The unwritten element of the social contract we share with each other  is what's increasingly missing today, in large and small organizations. It's the Golden Rule part. The one that's most important, self-evident if you wish to maintain that social structure and the one most easily and conveniently overlooked. That and the maturity to see the wider impact on breaking that trust in big or small steps, each and every day, seems to be missing.

I have no idea how to get it back, except try with each conversation. And remember every day that I, like every person and every corporation has a choice to make: Do I monitor people or do I have a conversation with them?

Comments

[Ricky]

While the initial transgression might lie with the employee who chooses to send joke e-mails to friends or "surf the net" on company time, it is certainly the role of the employer to lay down ground rules for computer usage up front and take care when enforcing those rules. While it is well within their right to 'spy' on their workers, one must consider what it does to the psyche of an employee who works in fear of their "Big-Brother-Boss".

Heck, I'll bet that most people don't even know that this is going on. I didn't until I saw this video on e-mail privacy (or lack therof) at work. Click on my name to check out the video, interesting stuff.

[Stephanie]

You wrote: "and I thought, well, I hope so..."

My sentiments exactly. I strive to be an authentic person so what you see of me "at work" and what you see of me "at play" are really quite consistent. I'm more than happy to share my blog and e-mail outbox with my boss and my colleagues. I'm acually proud of the contents.

The answer to the dilemma of whether or not to "spy' on your employees is perhaps simpler (and also more difficult) than presumed. The focus should be on hiring quality people who are honest, kind, communicative, responsible professionals - who will respect the organization (and the boss) both on and off "the clock."