Workplace Privacy Issue: For a Long Period

Workplace Privacy Issue:

For a long period of time, the right to privacy, including workplace privacy has been a major controversial issue. In the recent past, workplace privacy issues have become major focal point of debates regarding the rights of employers and employees because of the impact of technological advancements, legislative scrutiny, and rising costs of healthcare. Generally, workplace privacy issues are divided into two major categories i.e. on-the-job and off-the-job privacy issues.

On-the-job privacy issues encompass concerns like psychological testing, drug testing, property searches, and medical testing. They are the most common workplace privacy issues experienced by employees and employers because they are closely linked to job performance and safety. In contrast, the off-the-job privacy issues incorporate a broad range of concerns such as the worker's political activities, recreational activities, and medical treatment as they focus on employee behavior outside the workplace.

Given the significance of workplace privacy issues, there is a slight difference between acceptable and unacceptable employment practices. This has contributed to the enactment of various regulations as legislatures try to control one or several employment practices. Actually, in the United States, there are 11 states which have adopted right-to-privacy clauses in their constitutions to address the issues. Furthermore, employees have been involved in debates regarding on-the-job behavior rather than off-the-job conduct. Through these debates, the employees have stated that on-the-job performance should be the basis of employment decisions ("Privacy Issues," n.d.). While the workplace privacy issues have recently captured the interests of lawmakers, employers don't have legislative prohibitions and can simply invoke employment term at their discretion.

As technological advances have resulted in the development of new ways for transmitting information, they have contributed to new variations on the traditional privacy issues. For instance, there are several federal legislations that have been adopted to prohibit employers from interfering with their workers' electronic mail. Off-the-job privacy issues have become a major focal point because of the increase in health-care costs that have created new privacy concerns. The need to control health care costs is a legal business concern necessitating the importance of understanding employees' off-the-job behaviors.

It's expected that there will be more initiatives to adopt and expand workplace privacy laws in the future because of the several anticipated changes in the workplace. The piecemeal approach to legislations on the issue would result in the development of comprehensive privacy regulations. These future legislations are likely to increasingly focus on off-the-job privacy issues since they account for a huge portion of workplace safety.

The development of comprehensive workplace privacy issues will have a significant impact on the productivity of employees because of their impact on workers' safety and job performance. Regulations on workplace privacy are important because they help employers to keep employees focused on the job and ensure that the employers don't cross the line in attempts to achieve maximum job performance ("Employee Privacy," n.d.). While employees recognize the need for monitoring their practices, they have raised numerous concerns on some of the techniques that are used to do so.