Privacy and the Workplace: Technology and Public Employment

Abstract

One of the most interesting, yet controversial, areas concerning public personnel is employee privacy. What limits are there to employers' intrusions into, and control over, employees' behaviors and personal properties. Claims of privacy abuse come against an employer's prerogatives in establishing workplace standards, and ensuring the efficiency of administration. There are five major areas which trigger privacy matters in the area of public sector employment: background checks, cognizance of off duty conduct and life styles, drug testing, workplace searches, and monitoring of workplace activity. Of these, the fifth, monitoring of employees in the workplace, has raised a range of new conflicts between employer and employee. The problems are particularly acute as technological advances change the nature of work, communication, and supervisory functions in private and public agencies. These conflicts open anew the basic questions as to what is private, what is proprietary, what legal rights an employee possesses, and what an employee's obligations and responsibilities are within the sphere of public employment.