SHOULD EMPLOYERS MONITOR EMAILS? PART I

There are two aspects of this debate and of course as you might predict, the division splits between employers and employees. If you are an employer, you’d almost certainly argue that you have every right to keep track of whatever comes into or leaves the portals housed at your organization. If you are an employee, on the other hand, you most likely would claim that your private emails are not your employer's concern and that it is discourteous and offensive to have them rifling through.

If you are an employee, you’ll have to literally live beneath a pile of rocks not to know that employers sometime monitor emails. If you are an employer, you must realize that employees surf the internet for non job related affairs, all the time. As the number of people utilizing the internet rises, so does the areas of concern connected to its use. Issues regarding the supervision of employee’s internet use, employee privacy, and the legal protection of intellectual property rights continue to plague the workplace and those who work in them.

There is adequate proof to support that both managers and their employee counterparts use the internet for personal business while at work. According to Valt.com, 47 percent of managers and employees spend at least half an hour a day surfing non-work related websites for their own personal gain. The challenge now is for organizations to be able to meet its business needs while at the same time, protecting its employee’s desire for privacy. From a legal perspective, there are few protections for an employee’s right to privacy while they are on company time, on company property and using company computers. According to Michael Hoffman, an ethics consultant, 50 percent or more of American’s companies conduct random email surveillance, and most do not warn employees that they are doing it.

What are your thougths?

Photograph curtesy of Flikr.

STEALING IDEAS AT WORK

So you're at a meeting, dressed in your finest, you’re not only debonair, but you are more enthusiastic today than you’ve been in a long time. After all, you’re going to pitch the chief on an idea you’ve researched over for months. Talk about increasing profit share – the idea you’ve been holding on so firmly in your cranial lock box is certain to send shareholders to the bank. Your best workmate champions your idea and after doubtlessly being commended for being a creative visionary, you get to pass up the cubical next to the front office and head straight to your new mahogany desk, and into the corner office overlooking the lake.  Motivated beyond conviction, you arrive at the meeting, take your seat, and wait for your turn to announce your proposal. At the end of the speech given by the speaker you’re about to follow, your best (office) mate reverentially barges in and like a ravenous person rushing to a first warm supper in months, hurries to introduce…your idea. Yep, your office mate has ‘beaten you to the deal!’ Seething with anger, your chin drops, and you feel so irritated you want to hiss flames.

In truth, this scenario occurs in the workplace more frequently than you might be conscious of. Experts envisage, in some cases, coworkers are so indolent and so unsure of themselves that before coming up with their own ideas, they resolve to steal the ideas of others. On September, 09, 2009, MSN ran an interesting article written by Rachel Zupek. The article titled 'When a Co-Worker Steals an Idea,' speaks of the commonality of this problem. Zupek says, “Co-workers stealing ideas in the workplace is more common than you think.”

Although the author does not present a sure fire rationality for why this occurs. When arriving at a conclusion on what spurs this type of underhanded behavior in the workplace, Zupek appears to agree with leadership development and communications consultant Charmaine McClarie. Zupek says that McClarie believes, “Colleagues take credit from others because they think they probably can get away with it.” Zupek agrees, “If one feels powerless to affect positive and necessary change, then stealing what one can't create oneself begins to look like a plausible solution.”

Has this scenario or one very similar happened to you or anyone you know? Whether it has or hasn’t, if you came across a similar scenario, how will you reciprocate? What are your introspections on stealing ideas? Is it a good idea to tell anyone about your thoughts? After-all, according to Zupek, McClaire says, "Part of planning a project should be planning who needs to know about your ideas and how they should learn about it." Zupek continues by concluding, "When a group of people know and support your ideas, no one else can come in and take credit for them." What say you? Speak to me!

THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN MANAGEMENT AND HUMAN RESOURCES

When did human resource management (HR) shift from managing people to managing the organization? Aren’t CEO, VP’s, Directors and Managers supposed to do that? What is going on in the workplace today that executives seem to have relinquished organizational authority to the human resource department?    

Years ago, I recall when HR followed the authority and command of corporate leaders. It seems that has changed, and we have materialized at a place where HR is not only commanding management decisions but supervising what takes place in the organization. An illustration of this is where a department director feels he or she need to hire an extra employee and sends the job request to HR and HR declines the requisition adducing that another worker is not necessary because someone else in the department can, instead, fill the director's needs.

Another example, furthermore, is when management conceives one person would be a good match for a particular position and HR opposes and reciprocates by hiring someone of their choosing. Leadership tug-a-wars of this nature, between HR and directors about whether a department requires another employee, who the finest team member is for a particular role, and who should ultimately make hiring decisions, have from time to time culminated in organizational contention.

Although some have alleged that the role of HR has transferred from administrative responsibilities to one that acknowledges the significance of aptitude technique and skills within the organizational paradigm, most employees this day still perceive HR as nothing more than hiring and firing agents. This impression is troubling given that one of the predominant roles of human-resource management is employee relations while the principal function of management is to increase market share.
Since HR is concerned with people and management is concerned with expanding shareholder’s profit, some infer that HR should leave the management of resources (finance, materials, supplies, supplies, resource, and holdings) to the executives. According to an ex-HR executive turn consultant Garold Markle, “HR doesn’t tend to hire a lot of independent thinkers or people…”

The HR conceptualization applies to how individuals are managed by organizations and not whether or not executives should have to butt heads with the Human Resource Department. As previously touched on, the department should be about human performance and not organizational operations. As HR specialist Arnold Kanarick postulates, “HR …is about how you get the best and brightest people to raise the value of the firm.”

Hence, executives should not have to duel with HR and employees needn't be frightened of HR. Anthony Rucci, executive vice-president at Cardinal Health, Inc. says that, “business acumen is the single biggest factor that HR professionals in the U.S. lack today.” The separation amidst these roles couldn’t be any wider and shame on organizations that permit the role of HR to clash with the job function and seniority of management. According to Keith Hammonds, author of Why We Hate HR, “The truth is…most human-resources managers aren't particularly interested in, or equipped for, doing business. And in a business, that's sort of a problem.”

So then it would appear that the right approach for improving successful organizations is for HR to do its job, which is “…finding, nurturing, and developing talent,” and delivering value “…to employees and…managers.” Management need never cross roles with HR and Presidents, CEO’s and other organizational echelons need to guarantee that this never happen.