In a short essay, describe workplace privacy concerns for managers today. What are managers doing to control this issue?

What will be an ideal response?

Answer: Employers can (and do), among other things, read employee email, tap telephones, and monitor computer use. This may sound like an illegal invasion of privacy, but in the workplace, the employer in a sense "owns" the worker's time and has a right to make sure that it is not wasted or abused.

Recreational on-the-job Web surfing is thought to cost billions of dollars in lost work productivity annually, and employers have a right to try to minimize those losses. Employers also monitor employee email to provide unambiguous evidence for discrimination and sexual harassment cases. Finally, companies monitor computer use to ensure that company secrets aren't being leaked either deliberately or inadvertently.

Although employees may think that it's unfair for a company to monitor their work electronically, the courts have ruled that since the computer belongs to the company, managers have a right to view everything on it. Because of all of the serious issues listed above, many companies are developing and enforcing workplace monitoring policies. There should be a balance between management's need to know and the effect employee monitoring may have on employee morale.