Employee Privacy Report

Companies set up internet utilities and e-mail systems with a view to promoting internal and external corporate exchange of data and regular communication. Basically, the use internet is exclusively intended for purposes of the business, and should not in any case be used for entertainment or personal reasons  as it may result to the loss of the privilege since no firm would tolerate such individual abuse through the access of non-work-related chat rooms, or other inappropriate internet materials (Krizan, Merrier, Logan & Williams, 2007).A company policy allowing reading of the employees’ e-mails is fundamental in helping protect them from threats or harassment by their work-mates or superiors. However, as much as the company may monitor internet usage within its premises, it is imperative that the privacy of employees be put into consideration.

Work policies at a company are put in place to allow employees to use the computers at the workplace for work-related purposes and block out those sites that directly or indirectly compromise the working operations at the company or sites that are inhibitory as a result or their explicit content and obscenity. This is so because some materials on the internet that employees may access and even download could be possibly discriminatory in varied capacities or sexually harassing, and therefore the infiltration of such information into the workplace can result in employee claims against the company (Krizan, et al., 2007). It is also imperative to put appropriate policies in place because employees hold assumptions that the workplace internet and e-mail are not closely monitored by the management, and ignorantly regard electronic messages as their private knowledge yet it is open to the public. Another assumption commonly made by employees is that their workplace e-mails and internet work-related accounts are not part of the company’s business records and databases, and that all information exchanged through them can be seen and retrieved by the management. The consequences of these assumptions are warnings, penalties such as fines, or even prosecution in a court of law when there I s sufficient reason for suspicion of misconduct by the ignorant workers, which may damage the company’s reputation (Filipp, 2005).

Additionally, it is important that the said policies regulating internet and e-mail usage that are put in place to prevent possible threats, harassment, discrimination, incitement, and obscenity at the workplace be enforced with consistency and consideration of employees rights to privacy, and the due consequences and penalties be executed with utmost fairness. Notwithstanding, some companies consider the aforementioned type of policy as too limiting due to the apparent atmosphere of distrust it creates, and for that reason allow their employees to utilize the company internet and e-mail systems for personal reasons so long as the privilege is not abused (Krizan, et al., 2007).  

The fact that the misuse of internet and email facilities is not only a threat to the productivity of the company but may also create undesired legal concerns and even endanger the image of the company makes it important to observe the current  laws regulating internet and e-mail policy at the workplace (Filipp, 2005). The legal concerns of internet and e-mail misuse are related to liability of the company, and privacy of the workers. According to Krizan, et al. (2007), the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable governmental searches and seizures regulate internet and e-mail usage in public workplaces where the privacy o f the public employee in their office must be balanced with their right to execute reasonable searches based on circumstances, and a reasonable test carried out by a court of law in the land should determine whether the search was justified at its execution (Krizan, et al., 2007).

The law lays the condition that there should be enough reason to suspect that there would be elaborate evidence of the misconduct committed by the employee, and that access or retrieval of the file was necessary in the absence of the worker (Filipp, 2005). In addition, law requires that investigation be done into the objectives of the internet search and use of work e-mail in order to establish its reasonableness and weigh it against the nature and severity of the errant employee’s misconduct.  Private employers, however, are not subject to the Fourth Amendment legal restrictions, but the prosecutions should be made on the basis of rational suspicion, or legitimate needs of the business, while taking great care to disclose the particular contents only in instances that are clearly permissible (Krizan, et al., 2007). It is the legal responsibility of the employers to monitor internet usage and search their employees’ mails that are maintained by a system that is provided by the employer (Filipp, 2005).

Part 2: Oral presentation best practices

The best practice in oral presentation emphasizes effective delivery and maintenance of eye contact, and the delivery of voice during a presentation. To begin with, effective delivery of eye contact in oral presentation is crucial in good nonverbal conveyance of information. Most listeners want the speaker to look directly at them at some instances in the course the presentation session. This direct eye contact gives the listeners the assurance that the speaker is interested in them. Moreover, it enhances easy establishment of a rapport in an exchange that is predominantly one-sided exchange (American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), 2009).

Furthermore, effective eye contact allows one the messenger to receive the nonverbal reactions and feedback from their audience, which helps in gauging the impact of their remarks on the listeners (ASTD, 2009). It also helps determine the whether one is being understood, and to discover which points are making an impact, and even detect signs indicating that the listeners are losing interest in what is being presented to them (ASTD, 2009). Such kind of feedback gives the speaker the chance to adjust their delivery appropriately and to improve their oral presentation as necessary. Equally important, effective eye contact delivery enhances the credibility of the presenter as it strikes the listeners that the speaker is a ably competent and in full control of their presentation.

The other important element of best practices in oral presentations is delivery of voice development. It is the sound of one’s voice that helps convey messages to the audience; hence the need to consider the how the talk will be conveyed in addition to focusing on the content of the talk (Lee, 2007). A speaker should therefore endeavor to keep their voice clear through out the course of the presentation, without the undesirable repetitive clearing of the throat that is both obnoxious and distracting to the audience and even the speaker. One should also avoid speaking too softly for the entire audience to hear them well.

Additionally, speaking too rapidly causes breathlessness and nervousness that show little confidence in self before the listeners and should be avoided (The Voice and Swallowing Institute (VSI), 2010). Moreover, sufficient inflection through variation of the loudness, pitch, and pausing in voice delivery make the voice and the message interesting to hear; hence reducing boredom in the audience. In summing up, a sufficient articulatory precision is of paramount importance in effective voice delivery during oral presentations – these are adequate hydration and breathing to avoid loss of breath or voice and drying of the mouth (Lee, 2007). 

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