Right of Privacy in the Workplace

Management
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Privacy at the workplace has been a topic of debate for the longest time. Employees feel that their right to privacy has been infringed. In contrast, employers and managers think it is only orthodox to monitor employee practices and behaviors. Therefore, it is agreeable and disagreeable to keep a check on workers in an organization. Regarding privacy at the workplace, electronic monitoring, romance in the workplace, employee drug testing, and employee honesty testing are herein debated.
Advancement in technology has enabled effective monitoring of workplace activities of employees. Some gadgets used for electronic monitoring include telephone tapping devices, video and surveillance cameras, and computers used to track electronic mails, transaction entries, and record keystrokes and client service activities (Kirstie, 2021). Millions of Americans are monitored electronically in their workplaces. Management contends that it is their right to monitor employees during their tenure at the company. Electronic monitoring gears enable managers to constantly evaluate and gauge the performances of their employees, thus improving the workers’ behavior. However, continually monitoring workers’ activities might create stress. Constant surveillance feels like a form of spying on employees; therefore, they might grow an idea of mistrust from their boss. The feeling of constantly being watched more likely creates an uncomfortable work environment (Kirstie, 2021). In a survey conducted on employees, it is realized that a majority of the participants felt that there could be a detrimental tension between employers and employees due to electronic monitoring. Workers of organizations that do monitoring object to it less than workers of companies that do not practice electronic tracking. Civil rights activists and labor leaders also reason that the practice infringes workers’ dignity and privacy rights.
Romance in the workplace involves having mutually sexual desirability between two members working in the same company. Workplace desires are not contrary to the law, but some behaviors could cross the moral line. Romantic engagements are considered private, and in most cases, colleagues shouldn’t engage in them as it has its downsides. Most managers discourage romantic involvement between colleagues as it is both unprofessional and unethical (Khan et al., 2017). The biggest drawback of workplace affairs is that one’s personal life becomes no longer private, but it becomes the business of the whole office staff. Furthermore, workplace romance puts one’s career at risk—most people, once involved, take too much time focusing on their relationship than work, thus leading to unproductivity, which may eventually result in demotion or termination. Office romance can also create conflicts within an organization. For instance, conflicts might arise if employees who are romantically involved work under different departments and decide to share critical information that is privately shared within the departments. Finally, workplace romances encourage protests of favoritism; it eventually causes emotional fatigue and unsatisfac...