What’s an employee to do?

Hypothetical situation:

Several female shelvers have complained about a patron who follows them around in the stacks. At first it seemed harmless but now the man specifically crouches down or tiptoes to try and catch a glimpse or outright ogle certain portions of their anatomy. He tries to catch them alone in the elevators and the other day a shlever found herself cornered by the man in a dead end shelving unit.

The man’s behavior is escalating and even the police officers have asked that the man be banned. He has a prior record of assault and rape. Library officials have decided that the man hasn’t done anything legally wrong sine he hasn’t physically touched someone. Yet. So they refuse to ban him stating that his First Amendment Rights would be violated if he was banned on hearsay and denied access to information.

Since we aren’t asking that he be arrested he shouldn’t have to physically touch someone to be removed. Isn’t the fact that he is harassing these women enough?

My question to you all is whether you agree with that. Do First Amendment Rights really overshadow the protection of someone else? Do we really have to wait until someone is hurt or worse before we interfere? If yes, with no other considerations I may be in the wrong profession.

Along those lines shouldn’t we, as employees expect that our rights will be protected as well?

Just a Question...

During the first week of class my discussion group focused on the Ethics of Librarianship. Some really interesting side topics came up and I wanted to get a broader perspective by opening this question up to all of you who might have focused on Reconsiderations. This is simply for my own personal edification although I think it would make an interesting opinion piece.

Do librarians have Freedom of Speech in the workplace?

And does Freedom of Speech include Freedom of Expression?

Check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/user/neurowear?feature=autoshare#p/u/0/NMak73p3KY0

Cute right? Fuzzy cat ears showing whether you are attentive or relaxed. Funny commercial showing a woman, ears rising when she is interested in a man, his disinterest in her and the ears drooping showing she gives up and moves on. Clever and totally non-threatening.

This technology uses neuroscience to harness the brain waves we all give off when we think and feel. Take this to the next level and you might see a scenario like this one:

A classroom full of students bent over their computer tablets working on the lessons of the day. Their headgear all indicating green - they are paying attention and engaged in learning. Then we notice little Joey in the corner. His eyes keep drifting around his screen, his imagination is kicking in and his attention is wandering. We know this because even though he is looking at his computer his indicator headgear is fluctuating between yellow and red. Finally it settles into full red and the teacher calls him out.

Still sound harmless? They are just kids after all. It would be good for the teacher to know if they are on task so she can help them focus and knows when they need a challenge. Blah, blah, blah.

I value my First Amendment rights too much to want to see this played out - jobs requiring employees to wear such devices, or for public safety so everyone can tell who’s a threat or even a little cranky. Sound Orwellian? It is. Imagine a world where anyone can see what you are feeling. Forget poker face or the boss is saying something insane face, there will be no more hiding.

Here's what I want to know:

Since we would have to learn to control our thoughts so we don’t freely share them could this be considered a form of mind control?

Do you think our government would let this become anything more than recreational?

Welcome

Hi all,

Welcome to my class page! Here you are literally free to express yourself. Within the limits of the blogger terms that we all had to agree to and the terms of the University, and...

Wait, isn't this what we are discussing?

How free are we? Can we really say anything we like? Who owns our online content?

I think it's going to be an interesting class.