Employers must take the appropriate steps to successfully protect the corporation while respecting employee privacy.
Introduction:
Today’s digital era has experienced a rise in the use of technology in the workplace. Although this emerging technological use has allowed companies and corporations to be more productive and efficient in their respective industries, it has created new concerns for both employees and employers for privacy. These concerns have introduced the following dilemma that employers must resolve: how to successfully protect the corporation while respecting employee privacy [3]. Before applying ethical principles to resolve the identified privacy dilemma present in today’s workplaces, it is vital one examines the lack of privacy in the workplace, particularly pertaining to the monitoring and surveillance of employees by employers, and the right to privacy for employees in the workplace.
Examining the Lack of Privacy and the Right to Privacy in the Workplace:
Most employers are monitoring their employees and are using various methods and techniques to do so. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) is “the only federal law that directly governs the monitoring of electronic communications in the workplace” [1]. However, in general, workplace monitoring is virtually unregulated, and employers may monitor most of their employees’ workplace activities according to the terms of their respective company’s policy [6]. Employees have very limited rights to privacy in their e-mail messages, Internet usage, and generally any other activities/applications while using the employer’s network/computer system [6]. Many employers use computer software and technology to “see what is on the screen or stored in the employees’ computer terminals and hard disks,” to “keep track of the amount of time an employee spends away from the computer or idle time at the terminal,” and to perform keystroke monitoring to observe the amount of keystrokes per unit time each employee is making [6]. Company provided emails, telephones, and vehicles are all subject to monitoring via scanning/review of content, recording, and location (GPS) tracking, respectively [6]. As most employers are encouraging their employees to be more efficient and productive by using company provided technology and devices, employee right to privacy in the workplace has become more limited and virtually only applicable to personal possessions and storage lockers (personal belongings and spaces).
The aforementioned workplace monitoring techniques used by employers are beneficial to corporations and companies as they efficiently “prevent inappropriate actions of employees,” “emphasize the need for the effective use of the organization’s time,” assist in giving “performance feedback about employees’ work that can assist managers with performance improvement propositions and with employee development,” and help sustain “workplace productivity, safety, and ethical standards” [2].
However, the issue and lack of employee privacy in the workplace has caused employees to question the types of surveillance and monitoring methods used by their employers:
- When is my employer watching me and/or monitoring my workplace activity/data? At work only or beyond the workplace?
- What devices and technologies are being used to carry out this surveillance/monitoring?
- Which of my workplace activities (and to what extent) are my employer monitoring? Private conversations? Email and Internet use? Audio/voice calls? Voicemail and instant/text messages? Physical spaces in the workplace? Location (GPS) tracking?
- How is this data being collected, stored, and used? Who, specifically, has access to this data?
Proposed Viable Solutions to the Employer/Employee Workplace Privacy Dilemma:
Employers must take the appropriate and proper steps to successfully balance protecting the corporation while respecting employee privacy in the workplace.
One critical step for employers to take in resolving this employer/employee workplace privacy dilemma is to “promote values of transparency, autonomy, and trustworthiness,” which is one of the “best practices for data ethics” outlined in the “An Introduction to Data Ethics” document [5]. Employers should start engaging in this ethical practice by addressing the aforementioned employee concerns in regards to the types of surveillance and monitoring methods used by their employers. Employers should only monitor employee workplace activity that is predefined, inarguably appropriate for collection, and conducted while using the employer’s computer/network system after given informed consent by their employees. Also, employers should notify employees when and how (what technologies and devices are being used) they are being monitored and surveilled in the workplace. These actions will foster a transparent workplace environment and a trustful relationship between employees and employers.
Concluding Discussion and Future Work:
According to Glenn Greenwald, “… a society in which people can be monitored at all times is a society that breeds conformity and obedience and submission, which is why every tyrant, the most overt to the most subtle, craves that system” [4]. In the context of the workplace, employers crave workplace monitoring to enforce obedience and desired behavioral changes from employees. This brings into question the power dynamics in the workplace. Who should have versus who really has the ultimate power (employers who are the face of and represent the companies/corporations or the employees who drive the success of these employers/companies/corporations)?
Lastly, many people believe it is fine for employers to monitor employees in the workplace as long as they don’t “cross the line.” How do we define this line and ensure employers are not crossing it?
References:
1: “Managing Workplace Monitoring and Surveillance.” SHRM, 13 Mar. 2019, https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/workplaceprivacy.aspx.
2: Moussa, Mahmoud. “Monitoring Employee Behavior Through the Use of Technology and Issues of Employee Privacy in America.” SAGE Open, vol. 5, no. 2, April-June 2015, pp. 1–13., doi:10.1177/2158244015580168.
3: Nord, G. Daryl, et al. “E-Monitoring in the Workplace: Privacy, Legislation, and Surveillance Software.” Communications of the ACM, vol. 49, no. 8, 1 Aug. 2006, pp. 72–77., doi:10.1145/1145287.1145290.
4: TED. “Glenn Greenwald: Why Privacy Matters.” YouTube, 10 Oct. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=427&v=pcSlowAhvUk.
5: Vallor, Shannon. “An Introduction to Data Ethics.” Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, 23 Jan. 2018, https://www.scu.edu/media/ethics-center/technology-ethics/IntroToDataEthics.pdf.
6: “Workplace Privacy and Employee Monitoring.” Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, 25 Mar. 2019, www.privacyrights.org/consumer-guides/workplace-privacy-and-employee-monitoring.
