Employee monitoring is a fact. It's a trend happening the world over. Check this report from Japan, for instance, where more companies are putting in tracking software that, among other things, allows them to visually monitor employees in realtime through mini web cameras or report on an employee's moves on a computer down to the minute.

With security issues becoming more critical in this new ear of governance, defenders of the practice call it the ''new governance reality''.

Hard to justify all this really when people are putting in more hours at work and the lines between work and private life are blurring. People are not only working harder. Jobs are changing too with professional, managerial, clerical, sales, and service workers growing from one-quarter to three-quarters of total employment between 1910 and 2000, according to a Monthly Labor Review piece, Occupational changes during the 20th century.

So if people are putting in more hours behind the desk, when else are they going to pay bills, book tickets or organise vacations? Or in some cases, catch up with family members. And doesn't the boss have other things to do?

Still, if you are worried about the boss spying on you, there are some common sense rules. For a start, it's safer to assume that nothing is private at work, which means your messages can be shared with others.

Are these sorts of reports making us more paranoid? Or do we say you can't be too careful?