anyone seeing this error lately: "YOU_CANNOT_PERFORM_THIS_SEARCH_BECAUSE_YOU_DO_NOT_HAVE_PERMISSION_TO_ACCESS_EMPLOYEE_DATA"

That seems pretty self explanatory... Wich role are you using? What kind of Script is triggering the error (UserEvent, Cliente, Suitelet...)?

Thanks for the reply, I found out it was related to the 2018.1 upgrade in a a saved search call from a UE, had to make a Suitelet as a work-around