The New Battle over Workplace Privacy: How Far Can Management Go? What Rights Do Employees Have? Safe Practices to Minimize Conflict, Confusion, and Litigation

By William S. Hubbartt

Clarifying the complex legal, ethical and human issues surrounding workplace privacy, this work explains employers' rights in protecting themselves from employee theft and other damaging misconduct.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814403573
• ISBN13: 9780814403570
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Amacom Books
• Length: 270 Pages
• Weight: 1.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Be prepared!

Employers and managers today face an increasing number of threats to the organization. Theft of business assets costs U.S. companies an estimated $40 billion a year. More than one million employees a year are victims of workplace violence. Employees who download games from the internet increase the risk of introducing viruses to company computer systems and expose their employers to charges of software piracy. However, measures that employer's have taken to address these issues, like workplace surveillance and performance monitoring, have sparked a violent debate, and several lawsuits claiming invasion of privacy, sexual harassment and discrimination. Your best defense, says William S. Hubbartt, is to be prepared. He presents guidelines for helping you to avoid battles over workplace privacy and examines some of the laws that protect employees' rights. · Develop policies that will stand up in court. The best way to avoid lawsuits is to clearly spell out the policies that the company will use to handle privacy issues like testing, conduct and performance monitoring. Before you draft your policies, make sure you are aware of federal and state laws that apply. · When screening job applicants, relate all questions and checks to the job. · Protect computerized records containing information about employees. · Develop tests that fairly evaluate employee's work attributes. · If you use drug testing, notify applicants and employees that they will be tested. Utilize procedures that allow them as much privacy and dignity as possible. · Have a clear business justification for formal dress codes, such as public image, security or safety. Apply dress codes equally to men and women. Communicate the purpose of the dress code to employees. · Banning solicitation at the workplace must apply to everyone, from girl scout cookies to distributing religious literature. · Respect your employees lifestyle choices. · Investigate if the problem is serious. · Use monitoring to check routine issues.