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IT Employee Monitoring Questions
Posted on 1/12/23 at 12:01 pm
Posted on 1/12/23 at 12:01 pm
Asking for a friend, what kind of employee information is monitored and tracked for employers related to the work day? My company uses all things Microsoft such as Windows, Office, SharePoint, Teams, etc... I've noticed Teams signals that I'm away if there hasn't been mouse activity for 5 minutes. I can sit on a Zoom call and not move and it will show I am away. I am curious if there are reports for employers based on this data?
Also, are there reports generated based on activities such as downloading a set of files from SharePoint? If I was in corporate IT or if I was a manager could I request to see an individual's historical activities? Again, asking for a friend. And no, they were not watching porn or downloading music through Napster on the company PC.
Also, are there reports generated based on activities such as downloading a set of files from SharePoint? If I was in corporate IT or if I was a manager could I request to see an individual's historical activities? Again, asking for a friend. And no, they were not watching porn or downloading music through Napster on the company PC.
This post was edited on 1/12/23 at 12:02 pm
11
Posted on 1/12/23 at 12:14 pm to RickAstley
As with anything else, it depends. In general, yes, just about any activities can be monitored and reported on. That doesn't mean it is being monitored however. It's always a bit humorous when staffers ask what exactly can be monitored in a manner that suggests that the IT folks are actually monitoring everything all day long. Most of us have much more important and interesting things to do than to watch employee activity all day. 
In my opinion, it's bad managers that try to base employee productivity off of someone's Teams available/away status. Is the work getting done? If so, then who cares if someone's Teams status was away all godamn day?
In my opinion, it's bad managers that try to base employee productivity off of someone's Teams available/away status. Is the work getting done? If so, then who cares if someone's Teams status was away all godamn day?
This post was edited on 1/12/23 at 12:26 pm
Posted on 1/12/23 at 1:27 pm to RickAstley
Toggle your teams status to “away” at all times; solved.
Posted on 1/12/23 at 1:35 pm to RickAstley
There used to be a way in Teams to adjust inactivity time turning you to "away". I suspect that option has been removed.
That said, as other posted mentioned, while it can be monitored, IT staff has many other support and hardware based activities that need to be accomplished in a day that don't involve pulling activity report so you're likely good. I'd imagine this scenario would come about upon request from leadership for an already deficient/suspect employee who they are looking to fire and want evidence to support their cause.
That said, as other posted mentioned, while it can be monitored, IT staff has many other support and hardware based activities that need to be accomplished in a day that don't involve pulling activity report so you're likely good. I'd imagine this scenario would come about upon request from leadership for an already deficient/suspect employee who they are looking to fire and want evidence to support their cause.
Posted on 1/12/23 at 2:22 pm to RickAstley
This is an HR question, not an IT one...Could we tell HR what you have been doing and about how long you have/have not been doing it, sure...We do have entire depts that relegate a few people to simply passively monitor security issues in case things like this come up, but again, HR question
Posted on 1/12/23 at 2:51 pm to RickAstley
In my experience companies don't particularly monitor this stuff unless it is well known they do it.
I've seen managers request access to employees e-mails. One funny occasion was when read-receipts were popular. The employee kept getting read receipts that her manager read the e-mail.
My company's remote access, we use our home network's DNS for web browsing and it doesn't cross the company's DNS so they can't particularly see what we view on our company laptops. I'm confident if they wanted to know what I was doing, there is a way, but as a principal, my company doesn't monitor for anything unless you give them a reason to.
Why not just say what they were doing? Or give some hint as to what he was doing?
I've seen managers request access to employees e-mails. One funny occasion was when read-receipts were popular. The employee kept getting read receipts that her manager read the e-mail.
My company's remote access, we use our home network's DNS for web browsing and it doesn't cross the company's DNS so they can't particularly see what we view on our company laptops. I'm confident if they wanted to know what I was doing, there is a way, but as a principal, my company doesn't monitor for anything unless you give them a reason to.
Why not just say what they were doing? Or give some hint as to what he was doing?
Posted on 1/12/23 at 3:07 pm to WhiskeyThrottle
quote:
Why not just say what they were doing? Or give some hint as to what he was doing?
sounds like OP was browsing departments that they are not a part of
Posted on 1/12/23 at 5:38 pm to RickAstley
If you are really concerned about your Teams status turning to yellow during “zoom meetings”, there are little usb dongles you can buy on Amazon for $5. It essentially just moves your mouse around and it keeps active.
Posted on 1/12/23 at 6:34 pm to RickAstley
quote:
downloading music through Napster
Posted on 1/12/23 at 8:04 pm to RickAstley
quote:
what kind of employee information is monitored and tracked for employers related to the work day?
Depends on the employer, potentially everything
quote:
I am curious if there are reports for employers based on this data?
Depends on the employer, if they have monitoring software installed, yes there is.
quote:
Also, are there reports generated based on activities such as downloading a set of files from SharePoint?
Depends on the employer, they can certainly generate that if they have monitoring software installed
quote:
If I was in corporate IT or if I was a manager could I request to see an individual's historical activities?
Depends on the employer, but yes you could.
I think you get the jest of my post. There is monitoring software they can remote install and track basically everything you do. Are they installing it, who knows?
Posted on 1/13/23 at 7:30 am to RickAstley
Anything and everything you do can be monitored. Websites you visit, search history, files you have opened, files you saved, etc.. And yes, IT managers can request reports on your computer history.
However, IT is too busy to worry about what website you are visiting. Just don't give them a reason to monitor you.
However, IT is too busy to worry about what website you are visiting. Just don't give them a reason to monitor you.
Posted on 1/13/23 at 9:10 am to RickAstley
Our general rule as System Admins has been to make sure our network is as secure as possible. Our fight is mostly to keep people from falling victim to spam/phishing email scams that open up our network to rasomware etc.... We've been lucky, but people are dumb and do dumb shite, so we are always ice skating uphill if you know what I mean.
With the above mentioned, we don't "monitor people", we monitor traffic. Watching traffic tells us what we need to know. BUT, if traffic is pointing to a specific thing/user, then we take action if it's serious.
Basically what I am saying is, if you don't give your employer's IT group a reason to watch you and your traffic, don't do sketchy shite. If you are fricking around, do it in moderation. Not the amount that would bring attention to yourself.
With the above mentioned, we don't "monitor people", we monitor traffic. Watching traffic tells us what we need to know. BUT, if traffic is pointing to a specific thing/user, then we take action if it's serious.
Basically what I am saying is, if you don't give your employer's IT group a reason to watch you and your traffic, don't do sketchy shite. If you are fricking around, do it in moderation. Not the amount that would bring attention to yourself.
Posted on 1/13/23 at 9:13 am to jdd48
quote:
In my opinion, it's bad managers that try to base employee productivity off of someone's Teams available/away status.
My last IT job, I had to answer to the company controller(bean counter/accountant). She was over accounting and IT. She would fuss at pepole if their teams status showed offline, away, idle....etc. It would come up in one on one meetings. She would watch her teams window to see if people were showing those type of status, and screenshot them, and roll up on them about it.
Posted on 1/13/23 at 4:32 pm to RickAstley
As others have said, it really depends on the company and management.
The IT staff has the potential to be able to see everything from login times to individual keystrokes, what it comes down to is what executive management gives them the authority to monitor (and by "monitor" I mean "normally just looking at traffic for uncommon use like big bandwidth spikes or attempts to go to pedo.thailand.com" or someone who repeatedly goes to sites which send out alerts because those sites have some sort of malware which is being blocked).
Other than making note of anomalies, the only other thing is generally going to be pulling data due to a member of management requesting records on a specific user. This could mean browsing data, emails, etc. and could even get down to "record every keystroke they make" (but that's rare).
The IT staff has the potential to be able to see everything from login times to individual keystrokes, what it comes down to is what executive management gives them the authority to monitor (and by "monitor" I mean "normally just looking at traffic for uncommon use like big bandwidth spikes or attempts to go to pedo.thailand.com" or someone who repeatedly goes to sites which send out alerts because those sites have some sort of malware which is being blocked).
Other than making note of anomalies, the only other thing is generally going to be pulling data due to a member of management requesting records on a specific user. This could mean browsing data, emails, etc. and could even get down to "record every keystroke they make" (but that's rare).
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