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Work Place Privacy -- A Team Issue
Ever since Orwell’s classic novel “1984” was published there’s been a
growing sense that Big Brother may indeed be watching us. Walking along
a city street, driving on a freeway, or even sitting at our desks
there’s an increasing chance that someone could be looking at our image
on a screen without our knowledge.
Surveillance techniques at work are becoming ever more sophisticated and
intrusive. Emails and website visits are monitored, telephone calls are
recorded, CCTV cameras are installed in workplaces, and these are just
some of the less-sophisticated techniques employed.
Clearly workplace security must
be seen as a matter of concern. Crimes like burglary, robbery,
vandalism, shoplifting, employee theft, and fraud cost businesses
billions of dollars each year. But all employers should be aware of the
very genuine concerns about workplace privacy that are also growing as a
result.
Assuming that everyone's guilty until proved innocent is not a
justification for excessive surveillance. Employees, most of whom pose
no security threat whatsoever, want to be able to go to work and have
respect from their employer for their privacy and autonomy.
There has been increasing confusion among employees and employers alike
as to what is permitted. In some cases the introduction of over-the-top
security systems and procedures have only served to alienate and worry
staff.
A study by the US Office of Technology Assessment found workplace
monitoring "contributes to stress and stress-related illness". To avoid
a detrimental effect on productivity there needs to be a balance between
the employer’s right to protect property and the employee’s rights to
privacy.
Compared to the telephone or traditional mail, online communications can
allow employees to quietly and unobtrusively do tremendous damage to a
company. Good security practices by employers may require them to
institute a certain level of monitoring or recording of employee
activities.
New technologies make it possible for employers to monitor many aspects
of their employees' jobs, especially on telephones, computer terminals,
through electronic and voice mail, and when employees are using the
internet.
It’s understandable that employers want to be sure their employees are
doing the right thing by them without improper use of company resources,
but employees don't want their every conversation overheard or trip to
the toilet logged. That's the essential conflict of workplace
monitoring.
Here are some of the steps you can take to gain cooperation from your
team members in the matter of workplace privacy:
· Clearly identify to your team the risks which you need to counter
through monitoring - to prevent fraud, harassment or the disclosure of
confidential commercial information
· Make certain that monitoring is only used for the purposes you have
defined and that information gathered for one purpose is not used for
any other
· Monitoring should be clearly targeted; there should be no blanket
monitoring or random 'fishing expeditions'
· Sensitive data about team members such as health-related information
must be especially safeguarded from improper monitoring
· Your team should be told in advance of what is allowed and what is
off-limits, and in what circumstances monitoring may be carried out
· You should adopt and publish clear and fair policies that are
understood by all those affected
It shouldn't be very hard to agree to sensible guidelines and rules in
most workplaces, and if team members have a hand in framing them there’s
a much better chance that the intended outcomes will be achieved.
Employers should recognise that such an approach is sensible and will
result in a more productive workplace. Excessive monitoring is not
always in the interests of business and can produce just the opposite
effect.
Note that usually when an employer promotes a policy regarding any issue
in the workplace, including privacy issues, that policy becomes legally
binding. Policies can be communicated in various ways: through employee
handbooks, via memos, and in union contracts.
But legislation will not provide adequate solutions to questions of
workplace privacy. Any laws or regulations created for that purpose
would needlessly force both employers and employees into privacy
practices that satisfy few if any and interfere with almost everybody.
Remember that you are always able to bargain with your team members over
their terms of employment, including what privacy expectations they may
have. This can and possibly should be an element of every contract of
employment.
Better still, develop your firm’s security policies in cooperation with
your team so they share ownership of the procedures that are put in
place to safeguard your interests and theirs.
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