If you were on a company’s board of directors, what policy would you recommend regarding handguns, rifles, or other weapons in employees’ cars? In making your recommendation, what factors would you take into account? Would it make a difference how large the company was, the nature of its workforce, or where it was located? If you support banning firearms from the parking lot, what steps, if any, do you think the company should take to enforce that policy?

ORGA NIZAT IONAL THEORISTS AND EMPLOyee advocates frequently emphasize the importance, from both a moral and a practical point of view, of companies’
respecting the rights of their employees. Many employees spend long hours at work and remain tethered to the job by phone or computer even when they are off-site; not just their careers but also their friendships, social identity, and emotional lives are tied up with their work. All the more reason, it seems, that companies should recognize and respect their moral, political, and legal rights. But enshrined in our Constitution is one right that frequently gets overlooked in discussions of the workplace: the right to bear arms.