Blurring the Borders (continued)
Employers should be especially careful not to pry into employees' personal lives -- or, more accurately, not punishing employees for engaging in lawful activities outside the workplace, even if those activities are distasteful to the employer, says Richard Block, a partner at The Employment Law Group of Block Bernstein & Lagasse, part of Dreier LLP, located in New York, N.Y.
Employers also need to be cautious when seeking out information about prospective job candidates on the Web. "When recruiters see information related to topics covered by discrimination laws, they should be cautious," Block says. Since hiring decisions based on an applicant's disability can be construed as biased, an employer is in a better legal position if they are unaware of the disability.
On the flip side, Forment and Rubel agree that companies need to have a strict policy, or set of policies, about the personal use of the employer's technology. They also need to be clear that at work, employees should have no expectation of privacy. That means e-mails can be read and Web surfing monitored.
"Simply having a policy is never going to be enough if you're turning a blind eye to what's happening," says Forment. "But if you have an effective policy that's fairly thorough and you're not turning a blind eye when issues come up, you're going to have pretty good protection."
About the Author
Jeff Merron is a freelance writer living in North Carolina. A former staff writer for ESPN, his articles have also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Slate, Online Journalism Review and MacWorld.
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