British workers fear email monitoring

 

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By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 8 Dec 2011 at 11:55

UK workers are highly suspicious that their work email is being monitored by their bosses, according to a survey.

A report into tech in the workplace by Dell and Intel has revealed that 41% of surveyed British workers believe their work email is being monitored, compared to 28% globally, 34% in the US and 16% in Germany.

The firms admitted they didn't know what percentage of firms in the UK actually do monitor email, saying the survey measured employee perception.

Workers at public-sector bodies and large enterprises were more likely to believe their inboxes were being watched than small businesses.

UK firms were also the least likely to allow workers to download their own software, with 37% allowed to do so - making the UK the most "constrained" in terms of in-office downloads, compared to 57% of workers globally.

Bryan Jones, executive director for European marketing at Dell, said not allowing staff to use apps that are convenient to them hurts efficiency and could hurt innovation in the future.

He gave an example from Dell, saying his company-provided BlackBerry is not allowed to download a specific expense app called Concur that lets you photograph your receipt to upload directly into the expenses tracking system.

"It's super great for me being on the road," he said. "It's not allowed on my Dell device, but my 'i-device' that I carry, it is." That means he's able to access Concur from his personal device, but not from his work one.

UK works also have the least freedom to choose which devices they use at work out of the 11 countries surveyed, with only 37% of respondents saying they are allowed their pick of hardware.