It was proved that in 2005 and 2006 the company's security service and the hired detectives watched not only the employees but also independent journalists. According to new data, the company put a tail on them starting in 2000. Different studies show that about half of all British and American companies now spy on their employees. There is no official statistics on this score in Russia, but experts believe that the situation is similar.
Concerned about their security, commercial companies are putting their employees into the grim realities of life behind the glass from Yevgeny Zamyatin's dystopian "We." Different polls show that from a half to 80% of American companies use different methods of controlling their employees; almost every other company monitors its employees' e-mail and their browsing habits.
Spy mania started in the West a couple of years ago. Having sensed the mood, specialized firms began to actively develop and market all sorts of surveillance devices. Hence, in 2006 Scottish Trisent produced a system for monitoring the movements of employees with a cell phone.
Security services are watching not only rank-and-file employees, but also top managers, whereas the interest of corporate censors has nothing to do with commercial secrets. In 2005, Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher had to resign after the company's observation council got hold of his correspondence with a female executive.
Owners of Russian companies are keeping pace with their Western colleagues. As a rule, they explain their close interest in the correspondence and telephone conversations of their employees by the desire to protect commercial secrets. Experts believe that infiltration is the biggest threat for business. But sometimes, the owners of companies are simply angered by the fact that their employees do not devote all of their time to making money for them, and dare waste some of it on entertainment.
In 2006, Russia's biggest cell phone retailer, Euroset sent all employees a letter with the photos and personal details of those who visited entertainment and porn sites during the work day. Sometimes, the executives of a company monitor e-mails to check the loyalty of their workers. A former manager of the Rosta pharmaceutical company said that uncomplimentary statements about its executives necessitate various penalties.
Igor Simonov from the Kniazev and Partners Moscow firm of attorneys explained to RIA Novosti that the Russian Labor Code does not say directly whether an employee should devote all working hours to work, or spend some of them on rest and entertainment. For this reason, if employers want a computer, the Internet and office phone to be used exclusively for work, they should write it in a labor contract.
Surveillance is a trickier issue. The Russian Constitution guarantees its citizens correspondence and communication privacy, while the criminal code oversees punishment for the dissemination of information about a citizen's private life. However, Mr. Simonov believes that correspondence by office e-mail or conversations over the office phone do not fall within private life, and the law allows employers to monitor correspondence or install video cameras in offices for security reasons.
Mid-level employees are confident that the executives' suspicion mania and employee monitoring are not the best security methods. Security service employees of some companies also admit that if a professional sleeper infiltrated the company, monitoring e-mail and ICQ, or video cameras may be useless. In the meantime, this will undermine the loyalty of employees, thereby dealing a substantial blow to the company in question.
This does not mean that the offended employees will put the personal details of their boss on sites offering intimate services or the sale and purchase of used cars. But quite often the atmosphere of suspicion compels employees to keep some useful information for themselves, or only formally perform their duties. Finally, the most talented leave the company, and possibly go to work for a rival.
If a company wants to prevent the leak of important information that constitutes a commercial secret, it should have a list of certain rules, which its employees will sign upon employment. Executives who are concerned about the loyalty of employees should remember - this loyalty directly depends on good compensation for the work done.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
