Work Place Fishbowl

Workplace Fishbowl

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Workplace Fishbowl

In recent times our right to privacy has been under fire, particularly in the workplace. With the fear of terrorists in today’s world, we have been willing to sacrifice some of our individual rights for the rights of a society as a whole. A majority of these changes have taken place since September 11, 2001, in an attempt to prevent future terrorist attacks. New legislation, such as the USA Patriot Act, which decreases the limitations on the federal government’s ability to monitor people, has been created for this reason. Although new legislation may be instrumental in the defense of our national security, we must take a strong look at their effect and the effect of decreased privacy in the workplace. Advances in technology, coupled with new legislation, has had a serious toll on our privacy especially at work. It is now possible to monitor an employee’s keystrokes on the computer to how much time a day is spent on bathroom breaks. It is imperative for us to take a stand against these violations to our rights

In the years prior to the events of September 11, 2001 (“9/11”), very few voices of support, whether corporate or individual, existed for new technologies that could be considered intrusive. After the series of terrorist attacks in 2001, many Americans began to believe that these new intrusive technologies were a “necessary evil” in the prevention of future attacks by terrorist groups. While the events following 9/11 may have changed the attitude of the American public regarding national security, there is little indication it has changed their feelings about more personal aspects of privacy (Townsend & Bennet, 2003).

Employers have always monitored employees to insure good work performance and they sought to deter unproductive behavior through “looking over the shoulder” technology, but advances in technology have made recording even the minutest detail of an employee’s activities and behavior a simple task. Currently, employees have few privacy rights, especially while utilizing their employer’s communication systems. The corporations’ monitoring and recording practices in this area are protected by an exemption in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986.

Any telephone or telegraph instrument, equipment or facility, or any component thereof, (i) furnished to the subscriber or user by a provider or wire or electronic communications service in the ordinary course of its business and being used by the subscriber or user in the ordinary course of its business or furnished by such subscriber or user for connection to the facilities or such service in use in the ordinary course