A workplace is a location where someone works for his or her employer, a place of employment. Such a place can range from a home office to a large office building or factory. For industrialized societies, the workplace is one of the most important social spaces other than the home, constituting “a central concept for several entities: the worker and his/her family, the employing organization, the customers of the organization, and the society as a whole”. The development of new communication technologies has led to the development of the virtual workplace, a workplace that is not located in any one physical space.

Employees typically must relinquish some of their privacy while at the workplace, but how much they must do so can be a contentious issue. The debate rages on as to whether it is moral, ethical, and legal for employers to monitor the actions of their employees. Employers believe that monitoring is necessary both to discourage illicit activity and to limit liability. Although, with this problem of monitoring employees, many are experiencing a negative effect on emotional and physical stress including fatigue, lowered employee morale, and lack of motivation within the workplace. Employers might choose to monitor employee activities using surveillance cameras, or may wish to record employees’ activities while using company-owned personal computers or telephones. Courts are finding that disputes between workplace privacy and freedom are being complicated with the advancement of technology as traditional rules that govern areas of privacy law are debatable and becoming less important.

Employee Monitoring is the act of employers surveying employee activity through different surveillance methods. Organizations engage in employee monitoring for different reasons such as to track performance, to avoid legal liability, to protect trade secrets, and to address other security concerns. This practice may impact employee satisfaction due to its impact on the privacy of the employees. Among organizations, the extent and methods of employee monitoring differ.