ETHICS CASE STUDY

DO YOU KNOW WHAT I AM DOING NOW? by Marilyn Chalupa, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana

Note: This case requires use of the Internet to seek information about policies pertaining to workplace monitoring$/$surveillance$.$ Three sites are referenced below but there are many more.

It has been ten months since Emma started working at the Government Finance Center as a contractual writer in the Division of Contracts. Emma's background includes a bachelor's degree in information systems in $2000$ and work experience for four years in a corporate setting as a systems analyst in the IS Division and then for a corporate school district as a director of information systems. Her responsibilities in this last position focused on managing five employees supporting the hardware and software needed for the administration of the school and for the many classrooms.

Emma was the most qualified applicant and had agreed to attend training workshops to learn legal contract writing. A thorough background check was completed, and she had to sign a form that stated it was an employment condition that $"$my work performance may periodically be monitored by the company."

The Finance Center maintains the payroll of all military personnel and civilians that enter into a contractual relationship with the Government. Much of this work involves "confidential information" and thus workplace monitoring is one way to maintain security of information. Although Emma's education and prior work experience involved analyzing information systems and assisting employees with securing their information, she had not worked in an environment where she also was monitored. At the Finance Center, all employees wear radio frequency identification $($RFID$)$ tags that keep track of their movement throughout the work day, and there is monitoring software installed on all computers. Software is also installed on all their digital devices to monitor usage.

The work that is done at this location involves handling a lot of confidential information as the Finance Center oversees the payroll of all militarygersonnel. Many of these positions involve working with financial budgets, payroll, and contracts. For many of the employees, there is minimal supervision as they are trained to follow certain procedures for the work they perform. Emma's responsibilities consisted of preparing contracts and other legal documents for contracted government work and reports to Kristian, the contracts division head.

Since she has been in this position for almost a year, she has gained the confidence and respect of her peers and superiors. As a quick leamer, she often completed her work ahead of schedule and often had difficulty keeping busy, even when she asked for more responsibilities. With some of her free time, she started to use the company email for her personal use to communicate with other parent committee members at her children's school. Occasionally she would do Internet shopping but did not purchase. Sometimes she would download songs to her computer to listen to while working.

One morning, shortly before lunch, Emma was downloading music and Kyle, a payroll division head, happened to walk by her area on his way to a meeting with Kristian, Emma's division head, and noticed the screen on Emma's computer. Emma had just stepped away from her desk to deliver some contract drafts to Kyle and had left her music screen displayed. Kyle and Emma passed each other near