Technology moves at a pace that will easily outrun ethical standards surrounding its use. the results of technology on work ethics move at an identical pace with employers moving to determine ethical boundaries that appear to infringe on employee privacy rights and restrict communication abilities.

Monitoring Employee Communications
Technology within the digital age and also the accessibility of the net allows employees to access personal email accounts and ask friends and family in a type of ways. This has led to increased employer monitoring of employee communications during working hours in a trial to take care of employees who specialize in work tasks. While many courts across the country continually uphold employer monitoring rights, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse’s website states a minimum of one court — the court of recent Jersey — has ruled employers are also violating employee privacy rights in viewing personal communications.

Working From Anywhere
Easily portable laptops and smartphones with data processing ability and email make performing from any location a straightforward matter of finding a Wi-Fi connection. The shifting definition of the workplace also affects the ethics behind the quality eight-hour workday. simply because technology allows an employer to access her employees and request work at all times of the day, does not imply that it is the ethical thing to try and do.

Using Company Equipment
An employee in possession of company equipment, including a cellular phone or notebook computer, may treat the equipment as his own private property thanks to the mental ownership he develops through exclusive use. Ethical problems arise when an employee chooses to use these pieces of apparatus for non-work-related reasons, including trying to find a replacement job or accepting personal calls. An employer must develop a transparent policy on using company equipment loaned to an employee for business purposes. this enables an employer to line ethical standards regarding the employment of technology.

Social Networking Websites
Monitoring employee social networking webpages has become a preferred tactic for management and business owners and has blurred the lines on acceptable workplace conduct and what constitutes lawful termination. in keeping with the Employer Law Report’s website, as of February 2011, the National Labor Relations Board settled a complaint against American Medical Response of Connecticut, Inc. for the company’s overly restrictive policies regarding blogging, employee posting on social networking sites, and terminating employees who spoke badly about the business while employing a social networking platform.