§ 3.1.11 Office Searches/Office-Issued Equipment
An employee does not automatically lose an expectation of privacy at work. However, employers can conduct searches of employee’s areas (i.e. desk, office, file cabinet) if that search is “work-related.” See O’Connor v. Ortega, 480 U.S. 709 (1987). “Ordinarily, a search of an employee’s office by a supervisor will be ‘justified at its inception’ when there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence that the employee is guilty of work-related misconduct, or that the search is necessary for a noninvestigatory work-related purpose such as to retrieve a needed file. . . . The search will be permissible in its scope when the measures adopted are reasonably related to the objectives of the search and not excessively intrusive in light of . . . the nature of the [misconduct].” Id. at 726 (internal quotations omitted).
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