Deviancy in the workplace is not a new problem. Deviancy can be defined here as any kind of action or behavior that is outside of workplace norms. This can anything from taking customer information home to bullying your coworkers. What is new is how the advent of cyber technologies allows for new opportunities for this deviancy to manifest.

Firstly, the more direct of the two we will discuss, workplace cyberbullying. This can be in the form of sending unwanted emails to coworkers, or even supervisors doing something such as restricting access to certain employees or through unpleasant emails that they would otherwise have to deliver in person, thus removing them physically from their victims making such a person more likely to engage in that behavior.

The other for of deviance is not necessarily directed to specific people, but to the organization. One, for what ever reason can steal, alter or otherwise tamper with information their position allows them access to. For example, a disgruntled employee of a technical support service for a hospital could glean the information from patients for the purpose of harming public perception of the hospital. Another would be someone using their position at a law firm to remove or edit important documents that their firm needs for their current casework.

One final example of workplace deviancy merely results in lost productivity. With the ubiquity of computers and workplace networks, it’s easier now than ever for employees to make themselves appear to be working, complete with rapid fire emails and uptime without actually doing anything.