Zallorish,

You ask a very interesting questions that my business is VERY versed in. Can you monitor your employees activites... the answer "Yes, but."

Ok here is the deal. To legally monitor employees you have to do a few things. First off, does your company have a written and signed "computer use policy"? This policy states that the user agrees to your rules, knows what they can and can not do, and understands that you maybe monitoring their activites.

If you are using Microsoft windows based computers (or really any computer system), you should have a log-on banner that has a legal disclaimer, you are being monitored, blah blah blah... Once those two things are in place... monitor away.

Now that you are monitoring here is the next bit o' information. You have to monitor everyone the same way unless you have reason to monitor one specific user. You can not single someone out for monitoring just because you have a hunch about this person. If you do single someone out, it is discrimination and then you have a wrongful termination lawsuit on your hands. If you read one employee's email, you better read everyone's email. If you are tipped off about someone or see something unusual on a log file, then you can single them out.

There are hundreds of ways to monitor employees actions. All of them are fine as long as you notify your employees that they are being monitored and as long as you monitor everyone the same way. Key Issues!!!

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Best of Luck,
OhioDave