Everyone has a right to privacy, but just how far does that right go in the workplace? Generally, you can expect some degree of privacy at your job, but your employer also has the right to monitor its property and what its own employees are up to. If you suspect that your employer is taking things too far and violating your right to privacy, you may have legal recourse. An Atlanta employment rights attorney could tell you more about your options.
What Are My Privacy Rights in the Workplace?
In the workplace you can generally only expect a limited right to privacy. You can keep private facts about yourself confidential and you have the right to some personal space. Nothing else is exactly guaranteed under state or federal law.
You should also expect some privacy when it comes to your personal belongings, but this may not be guaranteed if there was an agreement with your employer about how these items were handled. For example, you may have consented to searches as a part of your employment contract. If your employer suddenly decides to look through your locker and your belongings, your privacy was not really compromised because you should have known that this was a possibility.
What If An Employer Invades My Privacy?
An employer can invade the privacy of an employee when they:
- Disclose private facts about an employee
- Lie about the employee
Even though you do not have that much privacy in the workplace, that does not mean that your bosses can tell people about your business without your permission. Whether they are talking about private information from your medical records or confidential info found in your personnel files, the employer is in the wrong here.
An employer also cannot purposely portray an employee in a bad light. This can be seen as a privacy violation, even though it is more about someone making things up about you.
What About Workplace Surveillance?
So if you have some rights to privacy in the workplace, what about common methods of workplace surveillance? Employers do have some rights to monitor you. After all, they want to be sure that the workers that they are paying to do their jobs are actually doing their jobs. So it is not uncommon to place security cameras in an office or install software that can keep track of what an employee does on the computer. If you suspect that your employer has taken steps other than these reasonable ones, then you may want to meet with an attorney.
When You Need an Employment Attorney
If you believe that your rights have been violated by an employer, then you need to talk to an experienced attorney. Contact Ben Barrett Law and schedule a consultation. We can tell you more about if you have a case and legal options. Then we can help you hold your employer accountable.
