Abstract:

Here's a scary thought. There is technology in place right now that opens virtually every aspect of your life to scrutiny by your employer. The jargon in the academic world that describes this workplace phenomenon is "panoptic power" -- the ability to see all.

Here's how it works. Armed with common employment-application information (name, address, phone number, Social Security number), employers and prospective employers can ferret out practically anything they want to know about you. And they can do it without your knowing or without your permission. In fact, they may not want you to know.

But information gathering by employers or prospective employers has gone way beyond due diligence. Pre-employment inquiries include credit histories (notorious for inaccurate and outdated information), motor-vehicle histories, criminal histories, worker's compensation claim histories and telephone usage patterns.

Full Text:

Summary - Employers have access to details of our lives

E-mail, voice mail and computer files may be monitored and searched without the person's knowledge or permission.

Q: What does your employer know about you? A: Just about anything it wants.

Ah, technology! There's no end to the unintended consequences that sophisticated advances visit upon us.

Here's a scary thought. There is technology in place right now that opens virtually every aspect of your life to scrutiny by your employer. The jargon in the academic world that describes this workplace phenomenon is "panoptic power" -- the ability to see all.

Here's how it works. Armed with common employment-application information (name, address, phone number, Social Security number), employers and prospective employers can ferret out practically anything they want to know about you. And they can do it without your knowing or without your permission. In fact, they may not want you to know.

No one can object to an employer trying to find out information that directly relates to a worker's fitness for a job. We don't want child molesters as school-bus drivers or those with violent tendencies patrolling our streets.

But information gathering by employers or prospective employers has gone way beyond due diligence. Pre-employment inquiries include credit histories (notorious for inaccurate and outdated information), motor-vehicle histories, criminal histories, worker's compensation claim histories and telephone usage patterns.

There is a clearinghouse in the Midwest, containing millions of computer files on Americans, that can match magazine subscriptions and (800) and (900) phone numbers dialed by households. It sells this information to potential employers and others. From these lists one can infer political and religious affiliations, hobbies, sexual orientation and other juicy tidbits.

Now, too, there exists genetic screening of prospective employees -- although states are moving to regulate this. In addition, employers screen with psychological profiles, "integrity testing" and even handwriting analysis. The testing doesn't end with the job offer, either. Pre-employment physical exams, which include urine and blood work-ups, are common.

Once employed, workers may now be issued a "smart" identification card equipped with a microchip. The card controls not only entrance to and exit from the workplace but can also supply reports to management on where the badge-wearer has been, how long he's been there and who else was with him.

E-mail, voice mail and computer files may be monitored and searched without the person's knowledge or permission.

Computer programs are in place to continuously monitor workplace performance via the desktop computer. In the name of service, telephone conversations may be eavesdropped upon or clandestine video cameras may be installed.

Beyond this, employers have begun to monitor and dictate off-duty conduct. Some companies ban hobbies deemed unacceptable, such as motorcycle riding, piloting small airplanes, rock climbing, hang-gliding and scuba diving. Also, many employers such as CNN and Ford Meter Box ban smoking, not just on the work site, but totally. Employees found to violate such bans are terminated.

Employers have expanded their control of off-duty activity by monitoring cholesterol levels and mandating diet and exercise programs. Some companies have policies regulating dating and marriage among co-workers or with a competitor's employees.

What all this means, really, is that your life has become "transparent" to your employers.

Some of this information is critical for the employer to know. Employers can be sued successfully for negligent hiring if they fail to perform due diligence on the background of an employee and someone is hurt or killed as a result of that employee's incompetence.

As a result, federal courts have consistently backed an employer's right to investigate and monitor employee behavior. States tend to follow that lead.

But employers can easily cross the line and scoop up much more information than they have a right to seek or possess.

Some fairly big organizations have had some very public problems with privacy. McDonald's recently settled a lawsuit over voice-mail privacy for millions of dollars. Two management employees who were having an extramarital affair left "racy" voice mails for each other on company equipment. The McDonald's franchisee listened to the messages and played them for a spouse of one of the cheaters, resulting in the lawsuit.

Procter & Gamble's chief executive recently apologized for his company's review of employee home-telephone bills in an attempt to identify the employee who had leaked information to The Wall Street Journal. (The search failed to identify the culprit.)

Northern Telecom was recently sued by 834 employees at its Nashville, Tenn., plant where the company had, for 13 years, secretly intercepted and recorded personal telephone calls made by employees in the cafeteria.

And these are just a few cases. Many, many more abound.

As the speed with which technology accelerates, our ability to cope with its impact falls further behind. The area of employee privacy is one that should not be neglected, if we wish to avoid an Orwellian workplace.

William S. Brown is an assistant professor of management at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass.

Copyright1997, Bridge News

[Back]