Employee Privacy Expectations and Employer Monitoring

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Employee Privacy Expectations and Employer Monitoring

As much as many people are seeking to be self employed, we cannot deny the fact that a large proportion of the working population is employed and has to deal with matters pertaining to employer-employee relationship. One such issue is the extent of monitoring of the employee by the employer and the employee’s expectation of privacy. In fact, most people prefer self employment due to the satisfaction they get by being their own boss and hence having full control of what they do with resources such as time and office equipments. Though most labor laws advocate for employees’ right to privacy, DelPo (2009) notes that there is a limitation to this right and that employees need to realize that the office belongs to the employer and he has a right to ensure that employees are not misusing the company’s resources.

With the advent of internet technology, the problem of employee monitoring and privacy has heightened as employers constantly want to check that employees are ethical in their use of the internet at the workplace. Privacy and monitoring issues in recent past have become a major challenge in the human resource department of many organizations with many causing legal battles between the employer and the employee. This is an extra cost that every manager works hard to avoid. This is why human resource managers need to address the level of employee privacy and employer monitoring that the company allows to every new employee to set the right working relationship from the start.

Taking the example of a director of human resources in a large company that has extensive use of the internet. To prevent misuse of internet during work hours, he has a duty to instruct the employees ...

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...PA153&dq=employees%27+right+to+privacy&hl=en&ei=izRXTvrrLcWGrAf-o43NCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=employees%27%20right%20to%20privacy&f=false

Dempsey, J. S. (2007). Introduction to Private Security. Retrieved from:

http://books.google.com/books?id=qQo7oDMSVXgC&pg=PA228&dq=need+for+employee+monitoring+by+employer&hl=en&ei=IT9XTqzYN4LkrAfu-PG-Cg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=need%20for%20employee%20monitoring%20by%20employer&f=false

Spinello R. A. (2006). Cyber ethics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace. Retrieved from:

http://books.google.com/books?id=NEyg1T9-dD0C&pg=PA24&dq=Spinello, +R. +A.+(2006).+Cyberethics+morality+and+law+in+cyberspace+(3rd+ed.).+Sudbury,+MA:+Jones+and+Bartlett&hl=en&ei=VVZXTpSUNY_IrQf82KSNCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false

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