Workplace Issues - Outline

04/19/23 Vassileva-Workplace Issues

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Workplace Issues - Outline

1. Impact of IT on Employment• Job loss, job creation, skills, retraining

• Outsourcing, global outsourcing

• Telecommuting

• Effects on company structures

2. Workplace Ethics Issues• Discrimination, harassment, equity policies

• Workplace monitoring

• Whistle blowing

• Health issues

Activities• Monday (Wednesday): overview - Chapter 8 of

Baase• Friday: discussion


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Impact on Employment

• Job lost and jobs created – Smaller increase in jobs with business growth.– What new jobs are created through the Internet and

E Commerce? – How to deal with short term problems from job

losses? – Will need for increased skill levels create wider

divisions in society? – Need for flexible education, constant retraining

(should corporations or individuals pay?)

• Changes in working conditions such as days and hours of work, and years of work before retirement. – See Figure 8.1 in text on living standards and

leisure.

• What is different about computers compared to other technological advances? – Computers eliminate a wider variety of jobs. – Computers eliminate jobs at higher skill levels. – The pace of change is faster.

• What will jobs in the future be like? • Perspectives of the IT job market?


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Impact on Employment: Trends

• Outsourcing– Provides companies with flexibility to deal with

short-term labour shortages; more efficient staffing

– Contingent Workers (consultants or private contractors) hired through agencies on a limited term basis

– Offshore Outsourcing

– International Workers

• Variety of Ethical Issues raised by outsourcing– Contingent Workers get higher hourly pay than full-

time employees, but receive no benefits (e.g medical insurance, vacation, sick pay, training).

– So they have no loyalty to the company, valuable gained knowledge goes away with them.

– Potential exploitation of contingent / international workers

– Decision whether to hire contingent workers: tradeoff between completing a single project cheaply and quickly versus developing people in the own organization.


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Impact on Employment: Trends

• Telecommuting

Good– Reduced overhead to employers.

– Less wasted travel time and traffic congestion.

– More flexible hours.

– Home-tied people (disabled, caregivers etc.) can work and earn income

– Easier to work with clients and other countries.

Bad – Lost social interactions, harmed career chances.

– Always available: blurred boundaries between private and professional life stress, burnout

– Working more hours

– Less efficient (too many distractions, communications)

• Flat management structures in firms• International corporations, the “corporate state”


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Workplace Ethics Issues

• Under-representation, diversity and equity• Discrimination, harassment• Workplace monitoring• Whistle blowing• Health issues


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Under-representation

• Women in CS

– Are these numbers important?“The under-representation of women in computing is alarming

since it raises the disturbing possibility that the field of computer science functions in ways that hinder or discourage

women from becoming a part of it.”

– Reasons? • Gender-based differences in behaviour, self-

esteem, others’ perception and conformity to social stereotypes

• Deeply anchored stereotypes and subtle systemic discrimination

• More reasons and measures


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Affirmative action / Equity policies

• Explicit policies to promote hiring women and people from racial minorities

• Most universities and companies implement affirmative action

• Main arguments against affirmative action (W. Raspberry):– Leads to lower standards– Encourages reverse discrimination

Response: – “Society with complete equity is the goal, but it

can not be attempted today without continuing the discrimination. Active encouragement is needed to swing the pendulum out of the current equilibrium.”

Question: – But when does affirmative action end?

Response:– “When people really come to believe that the

system is open. When we can, with confidence simply stop counting and turn our attention to more important things.”


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Discrimination and Harassment

• Sexual Harassment– What to do if you are harasee, if you are

accused of harassment, or if you are observer

• Racial Discrimination– On various bases

• colour, place of birth (nationality), accent…

– Usually very subtle • often the only indication may be the lack of people of a

certain race in a particular area of the organization. The larger the gap in the percentages and the longer the situation persists, the stronger the suspicion that some form of racial bias is operating.

• Other Forms of Bias– Against immigrants, the elderly, the disabled

– Reverse discrimination: • When a member of a group that has traditionally

benefited from discrimination is discriminated against in favor of a person from a group that has traditionally suffered from discrimination.

• To avoid reverse discrimination: taking race or sex into account when making affirmative action decisions is legal only as long as it is not the sole or primary factor.


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Employee Monitoring

• Monitoring of employees has always been a fact.

• Computers make more sophisticated monitoring possible.

• Three kinds of monitoring: – Electronic monitoring of details of performance -

e.g. keystrokes.

– Physical surveillance of movements and activities.

– Monitoring through email, telephone calls and computer files.

• See Guidelines for Monitoring - Figure 8.2 and Reasons for Monitoring - Figure 8.3

• Expectations of privacy principle. • Monitoring as part of contract of employment. • Monitoring and corporate culture.


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Whistle Blowing

• An employee’s effort to attract attention of others outside the company to negligent, illegal, unethical, abusive or dangerous act that threatens public interest.

• Dealing with a whistle blowing situation1. Assess the seriousness of the situation

2. Attempt to address the situation internally

3. Begin documentation

4. Consider escalation within the company

5. Assess implications of becoming a whistle blower

6. Use experienced resources to develop an action plan

7. Execute the action plan

8. Live with the consequences


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Health Issues

• Health and ergonomic issues. – Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). – Screens and eyesight. – Electronic devices and radiation. – Exhaustion and overwork / Stress– Lack of physical fitness

• Health issues and management policies concerning work. – ambiguous causes– difficulty in diagnosis– reluctance by employers to recognize– workers compensation– malingering

• to escape poor working conditions• ease of cheating

– legal liability? for whom?

• Solutions• changing the technology• changing the working environment• training and education

Documents

Workplace Issues - Outline