Question

Locate a news article that depicts an ethical dilemma in the workplace. Possible examples may include the following:

• Employees facing backlash at work for social media posts
• A business discriminating against a customer
• An employer with controversial policies

You are encouraged to explore beyond this list of topics to find an issue or example that interests you.

Address the following:

• Summarize the article and situation.
• Relate the situation to at least 1 of the ethical theories from this course.
• Describe how you might handle the situation differently.

Answer 1

Marina Stengart, a former nursing manager for Loving Care Agency, a home health care company, had exchanged e-mails with her lawyer on a company computer before leaving her job and filing a discrimination claim against the firm. The company attorneys were able to dig up those e-mails and planned to use them in their defense, but Stengart sued, citing breach of privacy.

Late last month, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision that found that the company violated Stengart’s privacy rights due to attorney-client privilege.

Changing policies
The ruling also took into account the evolving issue of privacy in today’s 24-7, technological workplace, said Joseph Poluka, an attorney with Blank Rome in Philadelphia.

“The New Jersey Supreme Court in Stengart wrote that, as ‘forms of technology evolve, the line separating business from personal activities can easily blur,’” Poluka said. “The court said it was not encouraging a ‘zero-tolerance policy’ by employers, because such would be ‘unworkable and unwelcome in today's dynamic and mobile workforce.’”

At the same time, he added, the court stated that companies can adopt electronic communication policies “to protect the assets, reputation, and productivity of a business and to ensure compliance with legitimate corporate policies.”

A key question with many of these recent workplace privacy cases, Poluka added, is whose interest prevails: the employee's privacy or the legitimate interests of the business? “The courts continue to wrestle with this, and employer policies will adapt as the law develops,” he said.

Indeed, what may emerge from all this is potentially stricter policies on the part of companies, some labor law experts predicted, because allowing even limited personal use may make an employer’s case weaker if they spy on an employee and then are sued for it.

Devjani Mishra, a labor and employment lawyer with Seyfarth Shaw LLP, said, “the rise in workplace litigation and government regulatory efforts demonstrates the need to set clear guidelines for employees' Internet and social networking activities at the workplace.”

It’s unclear what the future will hold for workers when it comes to privacy rights on the job, but surely employees would be wise to keep tabs on how the Supreme Court handles the Quon case. (A ruling is expected this summer.)