Comm 285 - Privacy in Work Place

Privacy in work place

Comm/285

June 4 2011

Jose Figueroa

Privacy in work place

Privacy when we hear this word we immediately think, safe, secure no one is watching this is true when we are home, but in our work place it is different, we may think that we are not being monitor and that we are safe during the day, but the truth is that some companies watch their employees and monitor them during the day. They monitor what the employee are doing and even says on the telephone or emails. Little do we know that we may be wrong about privacy in the work place? Privacy in the work place is only safe and secure for the company and most likely for the owner, but not for the employee. When it comes to our workplace our privacy becomes public, public to the company we work for. Even thou a company my give you a phone to use it is their phone and they give it to you for company use only, just like an email and they may even give you the use of internet but it is to be used for company purposes and no other purpose.

When workings for the Department of Treasury of Puerto Rico everything is monitored when you walk in the hall ways the offices , phone conversation and the use of the computer , employee are allowed to use the computer but for work purposes only. When employee log on to a computer the first message that appear is a "Warning" message is says that the computer is being monitored and inappropriate use may have consequence, when the employee click "OK" he is agreeing to the terms establish by the company, that is when the employees privacy stops and he or she is agreeing to what the company is stating, the employees privacy becomes public. They monitor the employees to make sure that they are doing their job and not in face book or other social network during the day, another thing is that the email or what you write in that computer is being stored and ATI are the data base of the Department of Treasury they are the ones in charge of everything that has to do with monitoring every ones computer and when a person is miss using the computer the go to the office and check their computer or phone use. Just like when you log on to the University of Phoenix they too have a Warning message that tell you that the computer and internet is use for university proposes only. Most company implements a program to monitor the use of phone, messages, email to make sure the employee is not making miss use of the computer or email, or phone they what to control work time.

When it comes to law and rights of employee email and internet privacy, in the workplace there are some. According to Duke law (Cite as 2001 Duke L. & Tech. Rev. 0026 7/25/2001), "[20: this legislation, if enacted, would be a step in the right direction because it would help increase employee awareness regarding the lack of workplace privacy and also clarify to employees when and what type of electronic monitoring policy information they must distribute to employees. 21: If an employer cannot fit its situation under any of the exceptions listed above-mentioned