Employee cooperation
Privacy is considered a general right for every individual. In most cases this has been a controversial aspect at the workplace. For instance, most employers track their employees every move in the name of preventing any embarrassing incidents to the organization. With the advancement of technology, their work of electronic monitoring has been made easier. Often, the employers experience a hard time trying to balance their own work and the employees worry about privacy. Furthermore, in as much as employees have rights to privacy, the employers have rights. Electronic monitoring has been used in various organizations to regulate the employees’ activities such as login in to pornographic sites. The organizations could be accused of sexual harassment following such. Moreover, the use of e monitoring in the organizations also help in tracking employees’ tasks and preventing the illegal ones from taking place in the business premises. Twelve men were reported dead in West Virginia after there was an explosion of a coalmine. They were trapped in dangerous fumes of carbon monoxide. A survivor said that the oxygen masks they were using failed to work.
Another issue that has raised many debates is that of romance in the workplace. Romance in the office has always been a problem to the employers. The argument is that, when one of the two who are dating occupies a top position at work, the decisions they make could be biased in the assessment of other people’s efforts. On the other hand, research shows that one third of workplace romances turn out to be long lasting relationships. Therefore, employees feel that they should be granted the right to date. Recently, it has been reported that an expert exclaimed that romance is nature to humans that cannot be avoided and practices have begun to change in various organizations. Moreover, it beats logic that well qualified people are fired because of romancing at work.
The abuse of hard drugs such as heroine in the workplace has always been a fear to the employers. In as much as very few people are involved in such hard drugs, they could cause major destruction to the organization such as the production of poor quality work, cause harmful accidents that are a hazard to them or fellow employees at work or even extort from their employers. Therefore, most employers conduct a drug testing procedure to their employees and job applicants.
Furthermore, another issue that has been of concern to the employers is that of theft and honesty of employees. A research that was carried out on retail stores showed that their employees stole most of them. Employers therefore opted to use Lie detectors to test for their employee’s honesty in the workplace. However, the use of lie detectors became a controversial issue basing the facts that some produced false information about the employees’ state of honesty. Most people claim that these tests infringe on the privacy of the employees.
In conclusion, the monitoring of employees at the workplace must be at equilibrium with their right to privacy and efficiency at work. Moreover, it should be understood that in as much as the employees feels that their right to privacy should be respected, they should understand that employers too have rights that should be respected. Honesty and employee exposé is a fundamental right to them. In addition, respect to employers property and loyalty and commitment to the employer are also his rights. However, there are some areas that the employers should not invade the privacy of the employee. Especially when it comes to the personal affairs of the employee, the employer should have no say at all. Moreover, if these issues have nothing to fail the employer, I think they should not invade their privacy.
References:
Lawrence, A. & Weber, J. (2008). Business and society: Stakeholders, ethics, public policy (12th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
