In theory, yes. On the other hand, there are cases where a certain degree of interest on an employee's private life might be considered legitimate. Consider a h

In theory, yes. On the other hand, there are cases where a certain degree of interest on an employee's private life might be considered legitimate. Consider a hospital that employs a surgeon who is an alcoholic (or a meth head). Even if he/she only works when sober, alcoholism does impact both the fine motor skills and the judgment needed for such a high precision job, and many people would agree that the hospital in such a case pretty much has to either fire that surgeon or get him or her into rehab. I agree with you that in general, what I do in my free time is none of the company's business, unless it affects my ability to perform my job. But if it does, I think a company has the right to tell me to either sober up or not bother coming back to work tomorrow. Then again, this quickly becomes fuzzy and can be abused in all kinds of ways. What if a hospital, say, run by the Catholic church told a gay surgeon to remain abstinent because of the risk of contracting HIV or some other STD?