Employers’ use of technology to monitor employees, such as computer and phone monitoring and video surveillance, can hinder employee privacy and cause conflicts in the workplace. Employees should understand their employer’s privacy policy and ask questions about any practices they do not understand.
Employees are often concerned with maintaining personal privacy in what could be a very public workplace. It can be understandable that employers want to ensure that job duties are met. At the same time, many employees may still feel they have some degree of privacy. Certain workplace practices, such as computer monitoring, phone monitoring, and video surveillance, can hinder employee privacy, presenting some of the most common conflicts in the workplace.
Technology has allowed employers to monitor many employee activities. The ability to monitor these activities can make workplace privacy a bit limited. One of the most common employee privacy issues could be computer monitoring. The issue of computer privacy can be a major concern due to the extremes an employer can go to monitor computer activities.
Some forms of computer monitoring include capturing keystrokes and computer files. Additionally, employers can also monitor e-mail messages and Internet usage. Some employers take extra steps to detect how employees spend time on the Internet by tracking the websites they visit and blocking access to certain domains. Employers may find such monitoring necessary to ensure productivity, while employees may see it as an invasion of their privacy.
Telephone monitoring is another aspect of employee privacy. Calls can be recorded for a variety of reasons, including quality control. If a business records telephone calls for any purpose, employees should remember that they may also include personal calls. In addition to recording phone calls, you can monitor voice mail. This can be a personal privacy concern if some employees find it an invasion to even have personal phone calls and voicemails recorded and stored in the employer’s system.
Employers can install surveillance cameras to maintain security, prevent theft, and monitor employee activities. This surveillance can cause employee privacy to be violated, especially if they are unknowingly logged in. Employees under 24-hour surveillance may think the company assumes they are breaking the rules and may lower morale.
Data privacy breaches can be one of the biggest problems in overall employee privacy. The question of how and where personal information is used can be a very understandable concern. Protecting employee data can be especially important in protecting against identity theft. Employees must be informed about how data may be used and who and under what circumstances it may be disclosed.
Employees should not make assumptions about employee privacy. All employees must ensure that they fully understand any privacy policy established by an employer and ask questions about any practice they do not understand. Privacy protections may vary by company, industry, and location.
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