Here’s How Many Companies Monitor Workers’ Email

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Is your employer watching you at work? Employee monitoring is common … but maybe less common than you think.

A new survey of 987 workers and 28 employers conducted by SimplyHired aimed to uncover the truth about employee monitoring. How often are employers really looking at email, social media, messaging applications and so on?

Here are a few of the key findings from their report:

Employers are watching (But Not As Much as Workers Think)

Employees may actually overestimate how much their employers are monitoring them. For example, 72.4 percent of those surveyed said that their employer surveiled their work email. But, just 52.4 percent of employers confessed to having done so.

Similarly, 68.3 percent said that their employer checked their internet browser usage and history. But, only 39 percent of employers actually did. A little more than a quarter (27.3 percent) of employers said they looked at workers’ social media usage. However, 54.6 percent of employees thought their social media usage was being monitored.

Workers do seem to understand why their employers are monitoring them. In fact, 78 percent of employees said that they would conduct workplace surveillance if they were in charge in order to manage time management concerns.

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the impact on Promotions and Raises

You spend a large percentage of your life at work — about 13 years according to one analysis by HuffPost Australia. So, it’s tempting to use work hours for something other than work, at least from time to time. But, the results of this survey indicate that workers may underestimate how much this impacts their standing at work.

Only 34.1 percent of workers said that “non work-related actions” performed during work hours impacted promotions. However, 51.3 recent of employers said that they did.

A comparably small percentage of employees felt that these non work-related activities impacted raises (33.6 percent) and bonuses (33.1 percent). Employers’ responses reveal a bigger effect. Employers said that these actions impacted raises (47.5 percent) and bonuses (53.3 percent).

Employees take steps to attempt to maintain privacy

These survey results also show that workers try to maintain their privacy at work. However, their employers also seem to be aware that they’re doing so.

More than a third of workers surveyed (35.3 percent) said that they often cleared their browsing data in an effort to maintain privacy. Employers believed that 47.2 percent of employees often did so. Nearly half of employers (44.8 percent) said that they thought employees often used their personal cellphones to communicate with coworkers. But, only 32.7 percent of workers said that they did.

Thirty-six percent of employers think workers covered webcams in an effort to maintain their privacy. And, 26.6 percent of workers reported having done so.

Tell Us What You Think

Has your employer ever monitored your email? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.