Spying on colleagues hasn't traditionally been a main component of the IT professional's job, but by some estimates tracking staff online behavior is now taking up 20 percent of the typical IT manager's workload. As companies spend more time and resources monitoring their employees' email, blog posts, social networking activity and mobile phone records, some IT pros are expressing unease, reports Tam Harbert in an article at ComputerWorld.

At ENE Systems Inc. in Canton, Mass., one member of the IT team spends a full day every week reviewing logs that track websites visited by employees, in the wake of the enactment of a state law regarding data security. It isn't a task they relish, but they see it as necessary, Harbert reports.

At other companies, the IT team has pushed back against management when it comes to spying on colleagues. At Farstad Oil Inc. in Minot, N.D., management decided in the mid-1990s that IT should report any time employees were using PCs for anything not related to work, Harbert writes. The directive sparked fear among employees and tension between them and the IT staff. After the IT director convinced management to let up on this directive, working relationships improved.

For more:
- see Tam Harbert's article at ComputerWorld

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Tracking employees on social networks