• Employers have a duty of care to their workers.business hands image by vb_photo from Fotolia.com
  
  Companies are allowed to create their own policies regarding workplace behavior as long as these policies do not conflict with federal, state or local laws. Issues such as employee monitoring and privacy often come into question. Employees often wonder if phone calls, emails and other correspondence can be monitored by their employers. Employers are also responsible for maintaining a nonhostile and safe work environment for their employees and for dealing with any employee behavior that threatens this security.
  
  

Monitoring Telephone Calls

• Employees often question an employer's right to listen in and monitor employees' telephone conversations. According to Privacy Rights, in most cases, employers are allowed to. Employers may use this as a method of training and quality control if the calls are business related. States do differ slightly on this law. California states that employees must be informed before their calls are monitored. The law also only applies to work-related calls. If an employer is listening to a call, he legally must stop once he realizes the call is of a personal nature. The only exceptions are if personal calls are prohibited or an employee is using a line designated only for work-related purposes.
  
  

Computer Monitoring

• Federal law does protect an employer's right to monitor employees' computer activities while at work. The employer owns the computer network system in the eyes of the law, so she has every right to monitor what is happening. There are some exceptions to the rule and limits to what an employer can do. Some unions place limits on how often an employer may monitor any one employee. Workers in the public sector also have a limited amount of protection under the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure.
  
  

Hostile Work Environment

• There are no specific federal laws on creating a hostile work environment specifically. However, creating a hostile work environment is illegal under several federal statutes. It is illegal for an employer to create a hostile work environment or to knowingly allow a employee to endure one. To qualify for federal protection, a person must demonstrate that the behavior is discriminatory in some way. Any verbal or physical conduct related to a worker's age, sex, sexual orientation, religion, disability or national origin would violate federal antidiscrimination laws. Another condition is that the behaviors must be long-lasting and perceived by the employee as mandatory. In other words, an employee must feel that he needs to endure the hostile environment in order to keep his job.