EAVESDROPPING FEARS CAN POISON WORKPLACE TRUST.

Byline: Ken Lloyd On The Job

Q. We believe that our employer is using sophisticated listening devices to eavesdrop on our conversations, as our supervisor has given clues regarding subjects we have talked about? Is this legal? B.H.

A. The answer is the proverbial ``it all depends.'' If your employer is secretly monitoring communications between you and your fellow employees, and at this point this is a very big ``if,'' such actions may arguably be illegal. The key word here is ``arguably.'' While employees have a right to privacy, employers have rights, too, and much of what they are permitted to do depends on the kind of surveillance and upon language in your company manual.

Before playing the lawyer card, there are a few points to consider first. For example, the fact is that you do not really know if your employer is spying on you at all. It is possible that your supervisor may be friends with one of your co-workers, or may have strolled by your department and overheard a few choice comments, or perhaps this supervisor is just a good guesser. Your supervisor seems to know too much about private communications in your department, but you don't know where the information was gathered.

The real issue is that you are in a troublesome work environment, whether you are being spied upon or not. If your supervisor is actually using some sort of secretive listening device to eavesdrop on you and your co-workers, this means that you are working in an organization void of mutual trust and respect. And, if your supervisor is not eavesdropping on you, the fact that you and your fellow employees could even think that you are being spied upon also indicates that you are not in an organization of mutual trust and respect.

When employees think their supervisor is spying upon them, regardless of whether such surreptitious activity is really occurring, it is a clear sign that the working relationship has stopped working. For an organization to succeed, and for the employees to succeed with it, there is a need for a strong shared sense of honesty, openness and respect. In this regard, every action by a supervisor sends a message to the employees. Rather than spend time wondering whether your supervisor is secretly listening to the messages you send, you should spend more time listening to the messages your supervisor is sending.

Q. I was at a meeting that was run by one of the senior managers in our company. His new secretary attended and was supposed to take notes, but she made more comments and asked more questions that most of us. Does this sound right to you? E.S.

A. The first question for you to answer is whether this secretary's participation in the management meeting is a problem, or whether you have a problem with a secretary participating in a management meeting. On the surface, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a secretary participating in a management meeting. In fact, the argument can be made that this is part of effective management.

The secretary's performance in the meeting should be judged by the same criteria that you would apply to all others in attendance. If anyone at the meeting goes into a hyperverbal mode, then there can be real questions about having that person present, regardless of title.

At the same time, if any reasonable person could conclude that her behavior seems to indicate that she is permanently out to lunch, then it's time to discuss the situation with the senior manager.

Your approach with the manager should be to focus on the secretary's specific actions that you believe have undermined the effectiveness and productivity of the meetings and the management team. While it is not your job to establish plans and objectives for your manager's secretary, you can provide your manager with some valuable performance data that he can use in helping this employee succeed. Your comments can pinpoint some areas where the secretary's skill mix and knowledge base may need some work, and they can also help identify some specific behaviors that may need some adjustment. By taking this approach, it will not take long to see if she really belongs at the management meetings.

MEMO: Ken Lloyd, Ph.D., is a specialist in organizational behavior. Questions can be sent by electronic mail to LloydOnJobaol.com, or they can be mailed to P.O. Box 260057, Encino, Calif. 91426. Names will be withheld upon request.