Employee Privacy Act

Is privacy and electronic monitoring in the work place an issue that is becoming a problem? More and more employees are being monitored today then ever before and the companies that do it aren't letting off. With all the technology used in the workplace it is more likely than not that employee' activities are monitored whether by email, telephones, the computer system. What limits are there to employers' intrusions into, and/or control over, employees behaviors? To what extent is monitoring an employee acceptable? Unless an employer can prove illegal activities are taking place it could be a violation of privacy.

The question of an employee's right to privacy poses a particularly difficult ethical dilemma. The employer has an ethical obligation to the worker, to honor their privacy and their general human dignity and rights. The right to privacy also protects private employee information, so that an employee may not disclose information. If that disclosure would be offensive to a reasonable person. Thus an employer who learns that an employee is going into rehabilitation for alcoholism and who disclose that fact to the entire work place, may be sued for the invasion of privacy.

Privacy is highly disputable between individuals, some people shrug it off and say, "I don't have any secrets" others just don't feel its necessary for someone to know what is said over the phone with a client or customer. Privacy is everywhere, one place where privacy is often questioned as being too invasive is in the work place. Excitingly, there are many studies and surveys that show that this business practice is surely on the come up. An illustration of this growth can be seen in a feature article by U.S. News and World Reports, which has statistics on the growth of companies that monitor their employees from 1997 to 2005.

As someone is sitting at their work station in a crowded office building, the wonderful sound of 'you've got mail' is heard. In turn the employee opens the E-mail mailbox and finds a letter from a nearby employee. This letter contains the usual funny joke of the day and a short joke ridiculing the boss, as usual. Who was to know that a supervisor would eventually find this letter, which would lead to both the termination of the employee's job and their fellow employee?

Does this sound common? It may, because the issue of E-mail and privacy is very common and controversial in our advanced technological world. The determination of what is ethical or unethical is not simple or straightforward. Employers and employees may have seen the ethical and legal issues associated with E-mail privacy differently. E-mail has become indispensable in the modern-day workplace, with more and more employers realizing that E-mail communication systems can increase the efficiency of communication.

A lot more employers are watching what their people do with the computers set for them to apply their everyday jobs. The foremen want to know whether their staffs are abusing the trust given to them or not. With the help of affordable monitoring software, they can keep a near tab with the people they employ frankly. Modern technologies are providing unprecedented opportunities surveillance. Not only they can monitor the e-mails sent and received by their employees effortlessly but also review the content of them. The same goes with reviewing the Internet usage and files stored in the computers. Employers can track down what kind of sites their employees go to during the working period using Internet Monitoring Software.

Employee usage of electronic mail (e-mail) throughout business time is a common trait of the 21st century American place of work. However, despite these efficiencies, this technological progression is also creating collateral issues regarding problems of employee privacy that today's legal surroundings seem to be unprepared to solve. This lack in the law is primarily based on the fact that many employees do not know the extent of their privacy rights regarding their company-provided e-mail accounts. In fact, many employees operate under the false assumption that personal e-mail messages sent from work are protected from their employer's scrutiny. Employees feel that their right to privacy is being abused and employers, under pressure in the legal system, are trying to protect themselves from email abuse.

Computer monitoring is most often intended to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the workplace, but with good intentions comes the opportunity for abuse by employers and employees alike. People involved in intensive word-processing and data entry jobs may be subject to keystroke monitoring. This system tells the manager how many keystrokes per hour each employee is performing. It also may inform employees if they are above or below the standard number of keystrokes expected.

Keystroke monitoring has been linked with health problems including stress disabilities and physical problems like carpal tunnel syndrome. Another technique permits employers to store track of the total time an employee spends absent from the computer or idle time at the terminal. Most policies should inform employees that such communications are not considered private and can be monitored at the discretion of the manager or owner.

Resentment of computer monitoring can become an organized labor issue. Employees are given some protection from computer and other forms of electronic monitoring under certain circumstances. Union contracts, for example, may limit the employer's right to monitor. Also, public sector employees may have some minimal rights under the United States Constitution, in particular the Fourth Amendment which safeguards against unreasonable search and

seizure.

Employees also have a right to privacy in their telephone conversation and voice mail messages.