Question

Take a stand in agreement or disagreement with the following statement: “The legal and corporate environment in the U.S. is hostile to employee privacy. In other words, present limits on workers’ right to privacy are contrary to any reasonable interpretation of organizational justice and expectations of trust in today’s extraordinarily networked workplace.” Using examples from the session video, slides, and readings--and your own experience, if it applies--write at least three paragraphs defending your position. (You may moderate your opinion if you like, so long as you specify which parts of the statement you accept or reject.)

Answer 1

USA is considered to be one of the most liberal and progressive employers in the world. Employees are given the autonomy and freedom to work, based on their instincts as well as perspectives. However, there are certain employee monitoring laws which are prevalent in the country. The most controversial law is the law which approves the employers to monitor the personal emails and messages of the employees.

Basically the employers have the right to monitor their property in the company’s infrastructure. The workplace computers and laptops as well as professional phones and sim cards come under the personal property of the employers. Hence they are bestowed with the right to inspect the computer as well as phones of the employees. This however is quite unjust. This is a direct hit to the privacy rights of the employees. No employer must be given the right to invade the personal space of the employees. Emails and messages pertain to the personal space of the employees and inspecting the same is a clear blow to their privacy.

So, I completely agree with the given statement that “ The legal and corporate environment in the US is hostile to employee privacy.” There must be certain limit to the monitoring laws so that the employees do not have the pressure of being scrutinized for every step that they take at the workplace. This adversely impacts the performance of the employees. Hence in my views, the scrutiny and monitoring of personal messages and emails of employees must only be done, if the employer has certain doubts about the intentions of the employee. Otherwise, the employee must be given the leverage to work freely at the workplace.