There have been a number of incidents in the news recently about students using cell phones to audio and video tape their teachers. These recordings were of teachers yelling at students and one where a teacher grabbing something off the students’ desk and throwing it to the ground. (It may have been a cell phone!)
Without knowing all the specifics, and from seeing only a short clip of these tapes, it’s hard to tell if the outbursts were disciplinary in nature or people just losing control. Some might argue that anytime you raise your voice you’re losing control and it’s never justified.
My hat’s off to teachers in general, however, because today’s students can be extremely unruly, disrespectful and downright violent at times. If you want to read more about this, here’s an article posted on the PBS teachers site, although I’m sure you can find many more by doing a Google search on the topic.
Should students be using their cell phones to audio and video tape outrageous behavior in the workplace? Why, I’ve known some managers to throw things at their employees in a team meeting. I’ve also seen some employees say and do things they should have been fired for. Now, it’s easier than ever for someone on the sidelines to capture it all in great detail.
We’ve got policies about email, IM’s, and hopefully by now a policy against using I-Pods to download sensitive data from one’s computer. But do we have a policy about recording people’s conversations or actions via that tiny little apparatus in their pockets? I haven’t heard of one yet.
While the legality of audio or videotaping someone without their permission is highly questionable (disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer), you wouldn’t want that moment where you lost your cool to show up on U-Tube now would you? Think of the damage it might do to your company’s reputation if it’s splashed all over Fox News. How would it impact your recruitment efforts? What about that big client contract you’ve been angling for? The PR just wouldn’t be good.
And a policy is no sure-fire guarantee to keep the recordings from happening, but certainly it couldn’t hurt. What I would definitely insist on, however, is a very clear and detailed discussion/training with supervisors and frontline managers about the words they use and actions they display in the workplace. This should be happening anyway, since companies are losing retaliation lawsuits by the truckload. And since supervisors are now personally named and included in these lawsuits (no more hiding behind the corporate veil, my friends!) they should be very careful how they conduct themselves.
It’s become more of a transparent world, hasn’t it? For better or worse.
Until next time, Laura
