Privacy and Employee Monitoring

I recall a corporate general counsel whispering to me at a meeting, "Do you have any draft policies on electronic communications? We just learned that one of our employees has launched a porn site using our computers."

Jeffrey Pfeffer's Business 2.0 article on how employer monitoring of e-mail and computer files has produced a climate of mistrust doesn't zero in on the root cause: harassment lawsuits.

Employers normally don't have a passion to pry into e-mails or files but since they are legally responsible for maintaining a harassment-free workplace, they have to worry about the use of their computer systems. The employers I've encountered don't devote a lot of time to checking on employee communications and computer use but - key point alert - they want the clear authority to do so and don't want an employee's expectation of privacy to prevent them from doing so.

Can this lead to a negative climate? It can be a factor but I doubt if such monitoring will demoralize employees unless it is done in a heavy-handed manner. Does management come across as the sort of people who'd monitor communications on a reluctant, occasional, basis or with a punitive, "Gotcha" spirit?

There's a world of difference between the two.