Employee Rights to Privacy at the Workplace Essay

Employee Rights to Privacy at the Workplace - Essay Example The issues of privacy at workplace started off with the use of telephones at the workplace for communication. Mainly meant to achieve the purpose of having employees interact with each other as well as with the outside counterparts, after much debate it was deemed acceptable for employees to use the office phones for personal use, as long as it did not affect workplace efficiency (Gant 127). Body Faster communication, efficient paper-less correspondence, and least costly for the employers, the internet was made a regular feature of the work environment within no time. Internet was not limited to e-mail correspondence too. Organizational Researchers would go online to gather information about competitors, maintain an online presence, and interact with the customers for feedback and suggestions. It has become imperative in today’s day and age to maintain an online presence, thus the initial e-mail correspondence limitation was replaced with round-the-clock internet connectivity at workplace. This gave birth to a new management issue; Ensuring that the employees do not engage in useless surfing while at work (Smith 40). Social networking has gotten almost everyone hooked onto remaining connected with close ones at all times. It is indeed a complex situation to be in as far as managing such a workforce is concerned. Employee monitoring and surveillance goes as far as fixation of cameras behind every desk and installing devices that determine the rate of wiggling on a chair, and whether it breaches the basic employee privacy protection rights, is another debate altogether (Ciocchetti 2). Since our topic is narrowed down to two major technological facilities at workplace, the telephone and the internet, clarifying the two mediums of communications and the purpose they are meant to achieve, needs to discussed first. The Telephone, like mentioned earlier, is a basis of fast and cost effective vocal communication from and within the workplace. A lot of thought we nt into allowing personal calls to be made and it was declared acceptable after sometime. However, cameras installed at workplaces are likely to bring into light any employee who is idling on the phone excessively. The employers are expected to trust the employees not to indulge in inappropriate activities on the phone and, thus, they generally refrain from overhearing or recording calls. This practice is not applicable to every organization due to the difference in nature of work for each. Where small advertising firms can have their employees talking about campaign designs, the central bank of any country can have its employees disclosing important information of policy changes that were discussed in a meeting. The latter will try to hamper such leak of confidential information by making it known to their employees that all phone calls are strictly screened and monitored. The internet, however, is a completely different ballgame. Transfer of information can be discreet and quicker , employees could indulge in cyber stalking which could lead to any form of harassment and a downfall in productivity, using of resources for activities that may bring a bad name to the organization like illegal downloading, embezzlement etc., the possibilities are endless. In a world where every organization goes head to head with each other on the maximum utilization of available resources, the focus has shifted from overall performance to hourly productivity. This means that organizations require their employees to refrain from activities that bring down their productivity level by wasting time (Kesan 289). On the other hand, it is