Is it ethical to monitoring e-mail and employee computer usage for
business protection?

What is "ethical"?

I would say that any employee should have the expectation that the
above is being done....

If you want to be on the safe side of 'ethical', make sure each
employee reads and signs this policy as part of an overall employee
ethics guide (such as I sign every year at the bank I work for).

I would question you back...as a business owner who has people relying
on your performance in the business world to put food on the table
(either private investors or stock holders) is it 'ethical' for you
NOT to monitor how your company's resources are being used?  Do you
let your employees write personal letters on company letterhead?  Do
you let employees read books or watch TV while working?

Here are some good articles on cyberslacking:

http://www.businesscentre.bell.ca/KnowledgeBank/Internet/Articles/cyberslacking.htm
http://www.bcentral.co.uk/newsletters/bulletins/cyberslacking.mspx
http://www.aftab.com/workplace_privacy__cyberslackingmain.htm

BTW: I hereby declare that I am responding to your question during my
own private time at home and not on company time!

In fact, you really should be monitoring your employees email and
computer usage.  For example, recent court cases have proved that
should one of your employees be engaging in illegal or unethical
activities online, then you are at fault just as much as they are.

Just make sure your Acceptable Use policy in your employee handbook
says that all computer usage for for business/firm use only and that
their computer activity and email can and will be monitored for any
reason.

Yes, it is very ethical.  I assist with this procedure at work, and we
frequently terminate employees with personal email and/or internet
browsing problems.  We use a piece of software from GFI called
MailEssentials.  This archives ALL emails going out of and coming in
of our company.  We use a WebSense product to effectively monitor
internet usage by time, bytes transferred, detination, category, etc.

But, as other users have suggested, always make sure this information
is clearly documented in your employee handbook.  You should always
have an acceptable use policy, or at least just a usage policy.  If
you don't, that would be similar to getting pulled over on a road with
no posted speed limit for speeding.

Steve

I will provide an alternate perspective for your consideration so that
you may incorporate more information into your decision.

You definitely should have a written policy--no argument there.

The policy should be realistic. Do you really intend to fire someone
for checking Olympic sporting results on their lunch?

Do you intend to enforce the policy consistently, constantly, and predictably?
Does the policy apply to everyone equally, regardless of level, including yours?
In a recent case an airline chief was targeted by the board either because
he breached his own policy or (arguably) could be *perceived* as breaching it.   

The software that does this checking and reporting is marketed to accentuate 
the "lost" productivity and exaggerates the prevalence of cyberslacking.
Consumer versions tell you to catch that cheating spouse---see what they are up to!

Treating staff as inanimate objects may foster a sense of mistrust
from owner to management to line worker which echoes back as passive
work-to-rule.
For example, if a person cannot check the g**gle news or pay a bill
online then they might just leave at precisely the end of the shift
with no flexibility. In contrast, if they check their lottery ticket,
peak at the sports, pay a bill and then work their butt off how have
you "lost". This is calculus, not arithmetic.   In 1906 seamstresses
in some sweatshops had to work uninterrupted without breaks or
diversions.

Finally, a bunch of attorneys on a "PD-day" were listening to some
la_di_dah lie-yer advocate this type of monitoring for their corporate
clients as a response to this great emerging threat.  Your clients
will be sued! he cried.  Tell them. Scare them. Convince them.

As a fly on the wall I wanted to ask them how many of *them* have this
on *their* office desktop and laptop computers.