On-duty and Off-duty: Employee Right to Privacy and Employer’s Right to Control in the Private Sector

Abstract

The changing legal landscape of the right of the employer to control and monitor employee behavior is examined. Two distinct areas are defined: behavioral monitoring and behavioral restrictions. Relevant statutory laws and the developing common law are discussed. We also examine potential employee reactions to such policies by evaluating the reactions of graduate students to six employer policies including weight restrictions, grooming requirements, use of GPS locators, drug testing, ban on off-duty smoking, and email and internet monitoring. Students responded to these policies by determining the reasonable interest of the employer in the behaviors being monitored or controlled and the manner in which policies were implemented. Their comments suggest that employees may accept some level of monitoring or behavioral restrictions if the employer can make a convincing social account of the need for a policy. Additionally, the policy must be clearly communicated and properly implemented. However, restrictions on off-duty behavior were typically poorly received with the exception of illegal drug use.

Prescribing Outside-Work Behavior: Moral Approaches, Principles, and Guidelines

“…OWB has been studied both for behaviors in general and for specific behaviors. Many of the studies focused on specific types of behavior, like drug use (Greenfield et al 1989), alcohol consumption (Howard 1975), smoking (Warner 1994), romantic relationships between employees (Binetti 2007), sexual misbehavior (Carlton 1973;Miller 2006), domestic violence (Camarena 2001;Geraghty 1997), social media use (Jacobson and Tufts 2013), misconduct in operating a motor vehicle (Meadows 1993), weight restriction (Cohen and Cohen 2007), and practicing dangerous leisure activities (Olivier 2006). By focusing on OWB in generallike Miller (1997) and Nwabueze (2009) this article hopes to also cover a variety of specific OWBs.…”

Tracking and Tracing: Geographies of Logistical Governance and Labouring Bodies

“…The invasive aspects of tracking and tracing workers have already been the subject of legal and employee rights scholarship (Baglione et al, 2009;Canoni, 2004;Cohen and Cohen, 2007). While employers are claiming that devices are not used to survey workers during nonwork hours, or in nonwork spaces, the technologies are so ubiquitous that data are produced regardless.…”

The relationship between restrictive human resource practices and salary among working professionals

“…More than 100 graduate students in a human resource class over three semesters commented on potential employee reaction to employee monitoring (Cohen and Cohen, 2007). Restricting smoking outside of work received the most negative comments followed by employee weight restrictions.…”