Monitoring Is Useful

Harry Bernstein’s July 28 column, “Sweat Shop Abuses in the High-Tech Age,” concludes that legislation is necessary to regulate “computer spying and to make sure office employees, too, are treated as adults.” Computer monitoring is a tool by which companies measure the quality and quantity of their products or services. Like all tools, its success depends upon the way in which it is used--and successful companies use computer monitoring in a responsible way designed to enhance, not impede, individual productivity.

The introduction of computer technology has streamlined many repetitive, tedious jobs, created new jobs, allowed greater individual productivity and has been a major factor in keeping American businesses competitive. Monitoring, used appropriately, provides companies the opportunity to make better, less costly or more timely products. It is an objective measure of employee work, blind to race, color and sex, and is used in the vast majority of companies with full notice to the employees. Far from being the beginning of an office assembly line, utilizing the resources of computer technology allows the creation of manageable jobs that people will want to do and do well.

LINDEN HECK

Executive Director,

Center for Office Technology

Washington