Strict surveillance at work 'can affect' health of employees

London, Jan 9 - Employers, please note -- don't
keep your staff members under surveillance in office all the
time as it might affect their health.
A study has found that employees are being put under
increasing strain when their bosses use monitoring equipment
to keep track of how hard they're working.
In fact, the constant surveillance leaves the staff
members feeling exhausted and anxious, according to British
researchers who carried out the study for the Economic and
Social Research Council.
"Computers and IT systems are bringing surveillance
to most workplaces. Now for the first time we can see how this
development is damaging employees' well-being," according to
lead researcher Dr Michael White.
Dr White, who co-directed the study with Dr Patrick
McGovern of the London School of Economics, came to the
conclusion after analysing a survey -- they questioned 2,132
employees and 2,000 employers across all industry sectors.
The researchers found that in workplaces checked by
computer, reports of work-related strain rose by 7.5 per cent.
Evidence of added stress was particularly striking
among administrative and white-collar staff in offices such
as call centres, where it rose by 10 per cent if staff were
monitored constantly.

A growing number of employers also admitted to
monitoring their staff's Internet use to ensure they were not
wasting time on social networking sites, the study found.
Those in lower-ranking office jobs, rather than those
in professional and managerial roles, tended to suffer the
worst effects of monitoring.
Dr McGovern said many employees felt as if they had
simply become "an appendage of a machine".
"People are having to register every piece of work
they do. Where your work is routinely recorded electronically,
then there's a sense that you are becoming an appendage of a
machine. The people who work under this sort of monitoring
were more likely to report work strains like feeling exhausted
at the end of the day," he said.
Dr McGovern said the research, covering changes in
the British workplace from 1984 to 2004, showed the trend in
monitoring had spread very quickly, but he expected it to
continue.