Monitoring Policies at Work: Effects on Medication Use

Background: We investigated the effects of supervisory and electronic monitoring on workers' estimates of the use of prescription drugs among colleagues for work related stress. We hypothesized monitoring would have an effect on perceived usage after controlling for standard workplace (e.g., job demands) and personal characteristics (e.g., own use of prescription drugs). Methods: Communications workers were randomly selected from 8 sites across the US; mail surveys (n = 486) assessed policies concerning monitoring and workplace and individual characteristics. Results: Factor analysis of supervisory monitoring revealed two factors (KMO = .89; 77.1% of variance explained), items and their frequencies are: (1) Eavesdropping Monitoring (listening to customer calls without worker's knowledge, 39.4%; sitting in during interactions with customers, 39%; appropriate scripts, 35.9%; appropriate product branding, 39.7%; and listening with worker's knowledge, 36.6%) and (2) Behavioral Monitoring (length of breaks, 58.7%; changes in policy without notice, 44.9%; and personal phone calls,43.2%). Electronic monitoring included violations of break lengths (55.2%), calls per time period (54.9%), time on each customer (54.8%), and number of restroom breaks (32.5%). Multiple regression analysis on perceived level of usage (mean = 24.0%) revealed significant associations with individual level (ever taken prescription drugs, p < .001; sex, p < .001, and depression p = .001) and workplace level variables (job demands, p < .001 and Eavesdropping monitoring, p < .001) (R2 = .36, F = 43.89, p < .001). Discussion: Implications for the role of policies protecting workers' privacy and the effects on workers' well-being are discussed.