Xcom 285 Work Place Privacy Rights

Workplace Privacy Rights There is much debate over what employers should and should not be able to do when it comes to monitoring the communications of individuals under their employment. There are those who feel that the rights of the individual are not limited to protection from the Government and employers have limited rights in regards to employee communication. There those that feel that the employer should have very little to no restraint in monitoring those under their employment. Going too far in either the employers or employee position can create an unproductive and unrealistic standard for a working environment. Employers must be able to create and maintain both a productive and safe working environment from their employees. However this does not mean employees should be subject to unreasonable and intrusive monitoring practices by their employer. Communication privacy laws and workplace policies should be carefully crafted to provided balanced protection both the interest of employer and employee.

All Citizens are provided protection under the United States Constitution from unreasonable search and seizure. The Supreme Court recognizes and affirms that the protection of the fourth amendment along with the first, third, fifth and ninth amendment of the U.S. Constitution extends rights to all. However these amendments are written and interpreted to only provide protection against Government sponsored intrusion and not that done by the private citizen (Dillon, T. W., Hamilton, A. J., Thomas, D. S., & Usry, M. L. (2008). Private sector employers are not and should not be held to the Government Standard for monitoring their employees. This does not mean employers have unlimited assertion over their employed or that employees have no rights in the workplace. It means that employees cannot expect that level of absolute protection in the workplace nor should they.

It would be unreasonable to hold an employer to the same standards placed on the

References: Used Dillon, T. W., Hamilton, A. J., Thomas, D. S., & Usry, M. L. (2008). The importance of communicating workplace privacy policies. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 20(2), 119-139. Doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10672-008-9067-1 E-Monitoring in the Workplace: PRIVACY, LEGISLATION, AND SURVEILLANCE SOFTWARE. (2006). Communications of the ACM, 49(8), 73-77.