Employee Privacy Report
Latoya Glover
Com/285
April 4, 2011
Beatrice King
Employee Privacy Report
Working in the restaurant industry privacy policies is mandated. Employees do use the computer system to do such things as requesting days off, and email communication to the management staff. Computer usage per person is not all the time or on a daily basis, however, using the computer is only based on need. Employees within the company are not allowed to use the internet at all, in-fact the internet is not an option for use; therefore, an employee cannot be tempted. When emailing, the system is set up to where the employees can communicate with the management staff as well as the managers can communicate with employees. Employee email selections of who an employee can communicate with is limited. For example, an employee can only communicate with the General Manager, the three to four shift managers within the restaurant, and the employee can communicated with the General Manager’s boss which is the District Manager. Beyond the select few listed an employee has no email communication with anyone else within the restaurant. Email within the restaurant can only contain content of words. Pictures cannot be sent. All emails sent and received are monitored by the General Manager; therefore, any message with content of negative or explicit information is immediately discussed.
The manager staff uses the same computer system as the employees; however, they are able to communicate with a few more people via email. They communicate with vendors such as liquor companies, beer companies, and maintenance. The management staff also has the capability to communicate with other manager synced with the corporation. Management has a limited access to the internet in fact their limitation is vendor only. Vender only means that they can only access the internet to contact vendors in order to place restaurant orders such liquor orders and or to communicate via email. The managers do not have direct connection to the internet. The vendors that the managers communicate with; their vendor links are linked within the restaurants system. The managers does not have to actually access the World Wide Web in order to connect with the vendors because as previously stated the vendor links have been synced into the restaurants system.
Upon being hired into the restaurant the employee is presented with a letter that states that can in no way shape or form be any fraternizing between managers and crew. Crew and managers cannot date, exchange phone numbers, and they cannot go to any venues together. Along with the fraternizing rule the letter also states that the company has staff that is only hired to view any and all social networking site to ensure that the company name is not being slandered by current employees and also to ensure that managers are not fraternizing with crew via any social network. In the event that any slandering and or fraternizing is discovered then the crew, manager, or both will be terminated immediately.
Currently, privacy laws have been established to protect the work place as well as the employees. According to privacyright.org, “Recent surveys have found that a majority of employers monitor their employees. They are motivated by concern over litigation and the increasing role that electronic evidence plays in lawsuits and government agency investigations.” (Workplace Privacy and Employee Monitoring, 2011) According to privacy rights.org current law also states:
“If an electronic mail (e-mail) system is used at a company, the employer owns it and is allowed to review its contents. Messages sent within the company as well as those that are sent from your terminal to another company or from another company to you can be subject to monitoring by your employer. This includes web-based email accounts such as Yahoo and Hotmail as well as instant messages. The same holds true for voice mail systems. In general, employees should
