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As easy as it may be to read every word in every e-mail and to know every Web site that my employees visit, is it right?
I'm worried that e-mail monitoring will be seen as too "Big Brother" by my employees, but I know that problems will occur if I don't monitor.
There is also a moral vs. practical dillema with Web surfing as well. I'm worried about my employees productivity when useing the Net; there is so much tempting content on the Web to distract my workers from their tasks. Obviously when they are eye-balling stock market tricks or popping into auction sites, they aren't doing their jobs and are wasting time and my money!! Therefore, I have decided to use theNetAngel

Should I tell them about theNetAngel?
Will my employees react to this as snooping?
Are there any legal issues concerning monitoring that i should be aware of?

I believe that with the right balance, monitoring can be liberating rather than restricting. The moral issue for me is not so much monitoring itself, but the way in which it's done.
Honesty is key. I monitor employee e-mail and tell them I will, and because monitoring is now so common, most employees are simply accepting that it happens.

Our office culture is based on openness. All our e-mail passwords are made available to all employees. Anybody, at any time, can read my e-mail— and I'm the president! We do this because it's more efficient for business.

Sometimes employees have been absent and key information was available only in their e-mail. That's the main reason we keep e-mail public. We also want the computers used as business tools. We simply talk to employees who are making too much personal use of them.

How did my employees react to the new policy? Initially, they were surprised when they heard it—but we believe in fully discussing all our policies. When we talk about what we do with e-mail, employees understand why. To us, the core value is being open and, when you're open, people usually go along with you.