Personally, I feel it would depend on the seriousness of the situation and what they employer suspects is going on. I wouldn't agree to spy on my coworkers and report on petty things, like someone taking home too many paper clips or spending too much time in the restroom. It would have to be something that might seriously affect the reputation and the future of the company I worked for.

I've been in this situation, actually, when I was still working at the factory. We manufactured washing machine timers and the companies we were supplying were finding bad timers in the shipping cartons, timers that quite obviously should not have been there; that never would have passed our testing equipment. I had heard of an operator who was seen putting junk parts in the box instead of salvaging or repairing them like he was supposed to. I'd never caught him myself or he would have got an earful from me! Our foreman told us of the problem and asked us to help solve the problem, so I privately told her what I had heard.

I don't like snitches and try not to be one but sometimes you have to do it for the common good.

It's probably not worth ruining your reputation or someone else's career for petty, little things, but I don't actually see anything unethical about it. No one has a right to privacy at their place of business, outside of the bathroom. You're on your employer's time, being paid to do a job, so if they want to monitor your work, they're allowed to. Businesses that use cameras often find that employees quit, but there's nothing stopping them from doing it. To ask another employee to "spy" is sort of a mean thing to do to the employee, because of the awkward situation they're in, but it's a legitimate request.

I think the bigger issue for the employee who is asked to spy is a clear understanding of expectations. For instance, if they fail to report on an incident, are they going to get in trouble? Is it their new job to follow this person around, or just report if they happen to see something? Are they going to be protected from being revealed as the source of information?

Everyone does stuff at work that they shouldn't. Hell, I'm at work right now. But employers do have the right to crack down, and in a bad economy, you really have to ask yourself: is it worth squabbling with them?

If someone is stealing from the Company or giving the cklients a bad view of the Company then they deserve to be fired as they are also putting my job at risk if the Company goes under. If it's for something petty or in their personal life I wouldn't.

No, I would not do it. When I first started my job at the Bistro, I had alot of problems with a co-worker. I have several years customer service and his ways of dealing with things are sooo very wrong. The owners asked me to let them know if I continued having these issues with him. Of course I did and I would report to them what was taking place, for we were all there to serve the students an facuilty and I constanlty got complaints about him. Finally, after about 7 months of reporting to them, they told me to just deal with him the best I could and they would understand if I had to tell him what I thought. I still have some issues with him today, I just try really, really hard not to cause any "unwanted crap". I do not think that many companies would really ask this of any of their employees unless they thought the person was doing some form of harm to their business or doing some kind of damage to it.

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