Employee Privacy Rights

Employee Privacy Rights in the Workplace

Many Americans embark on their employers violating their privacy. Employers are becoming more vicious on how they screen new candidates, as well as their current employees. Normally employers will conduct background checks, random drug testing, and maybe even a credit check. The question I'm asking is "How far is too far"? Employees need to become more aware of this situation. Employee privacy laws are limited, which makes it easy for employers to invade your privacy. Some things are personal and should remain that way. I believe that employer's need to reevaluate their techniques and approach this ongoing situation and find alternative solutions to this problem. There are limits to everything in life, and there need to be limits set on employee's privacy laws.

Employer's privacy laws are limited; they're not set to protect you. Something needs to be done to protect the employees' interest. Employers have the upper hand in this situation. Everyday they find a new way to invade employees' privacy. It's time to make a stand and stop this from happening. We as employees need to get new laws enforced to prevent this from happening to us, and our children. After carefully researching this, I found that this epidemic is happening across the nation. This situation can only get better if, we as citizens make it better. It's time to stop complaining about this, and do something!

The Employer's Interest

Employee's have the right to protect their privacy by any means necessary. At the same time employers have an investment to look after. They do have the right to screen their employees by implementing drug screening, background, and at time credit checks. I agree that these measure's need to be taken to prevent their investment; they'll be taking a risk if they didn't. Everyone they hire has a history, some may be criminal. They have the right to know this. They don't want anyone with a history of fraud or theft. This is understandable; I wouldn't hire a person with this type of record either. Although, they have some valid points, there are boundaries that shouldn't be crossed. Many feel like some things should remain private. Your social life shouldn't be a factor, when your career is involved. As long as you pass all the screenings, everything else should be irrelevant. It's up to us to make sure our rights are protected. As long as we sit and do nothing, nothing is going to change. It's time to stand up for what's right and make a change. Challenging this will only make our lives and jobs much easier.

After reading "You smoke? You're fired (May2005), Armour speaks on how companies are taking action against employees who smoke. The outright bans raise new questions about how far companies can go in regulating workers' behavior when they are off the clock. The crackdown is coming in part as a way to curb soaring health care costs, but critics say companies are violating workers' privacy rights. The zero-tolerance policies are coming as more companies adopt smoke-free workplaces. The author points out how employers feel they are protecting their investments by screening their employees in every way possible. Being a smoker is a choice each individual makes and you shouldn't be held liable for this action. What you do after work hours is each individuals business. The decisions we make and lives we choose to live is pro choice.

Surveillance Techniques

Employers closely monitor their employees by using all types of surveillance techniques. Employee monitoring has become a major issue in society. Different types of monitoring are currently being used by employers, including computer monitoring, video surveillance, investigators, undercover operatives, spying, eavesdropping and wiretapping, and electronic mail and voice mail, and active badge systems. There are lots of employees that are terminated for these reasons. While employers argue that monitoring is a way to increase productivity and customer service, others argue it is really the modern method of having control and power over their employees. Monitoring has been used to determine pay and promotion decisions as well as to reinforce disciplinary actions. Objections to computer monitoring include the issue of privacy. Monitoring is a simple way of invading employee's privacy. For example, computer data banks, telephone and video monitoring, active badges, and other monitoring techniques make the private lives of workers easier to delve into without detection (Mishra, J.M; Crampton, S.M 1998).

There are many types of surveillance techniques used to monitor employees. Some of the more common techniques are computer monitoring, video surveillance and electronic mail and voice mail. Companies constantly monitor all these techniques regularly. They begin monitoring you from the time you walk in to the time you leave. It's all just a way of keeping tabs on their employees. Computer usage is the biggest way companies monitor their employees. Whether you are using the internet or entering data into the system. They monitor everything from how many keystrokes you do a minute to where/who your last email can from. That's a huge invasion of privacy. If the information obtained is to better productivity it's understandable, but not to read email sent from one employee to another. For example: "Tammy from the 3rd floor sent Arlene a email about her date over the weekend, and Arlene replies back". Not knowing when the company