Electronic Surveillance of Employees
Angela Hockaday
Strayer University
Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance
LEG 500
Professor Anne Dewey-Balzhiser
October 23, 2011
Abstract
This paper will explore Electronic Surveillance of Employees. First, we will discuss and explain where an employee can reasonably expect to have privacy in the workplace. Secondly, we will review information regarding in the office workplace there are typically two types of workspaces, an open area, in which there are several desks and where conversations can be overheard, or an enclosed office, in which-when the door is closed-conversations cannot be heard and where one would expect virtually total privacy. Explain whether it makes a difference if an employee is in an open area or in an enclosed office. Thirdly, we review the video and analyze Herman’s need to know whether his salespersons are honest is a sufficient ground for utilizing electronic surveillance. Next take a look into and try to explain to what extent an employer can engage in electronic surveillance of employees. Finally, we explain to what extent the inclusion of innocent, unaware third-parties in such surveillance determine whether it is legal.
Electronic Surveillance of Employees
Electronic surveillance of employees, whether employers have an interest in being able to monitor their employees while at work, or knowing how their employees are in their personal lives, Frederick Taylor invented such an approach in the 1880s. He gave his managers the ability to track and watch how his employees worked. A similar approach took place in the early twentieth century with Ford Motor Company, when they hired social workers to investigate their employees. The difference between Taylor’s to Ford’s approach was that Taylor monitoring of his employees related to the production of job quality; and Ford monitoring of their