Computer misuse an abuse of company time
Dear e-COACH,
What are your thoughts about employees using company computers and the 'Net for their own personal use? As a manager, I know we have employees who are shopping, downloading music and doing personal emailing on company time, using company technology. There are also dozens of email jokes that circulate through the office every day, some of them in very poor taste. How and where do we draw the line without being unreasonable?
Dear Sender,
This is a big issue in many organizations these days. Your question is the right one because you do need to draw the line. You do that by applying the same logic and process that you would to any other abuse of company time and/or resources.
Would it be acceptable for any employee to spend a couple of hours sitting in the lobby chatting with their travel agent or stockbroker? How about being on the phone every afternoon exchanging jokes with friends? ("Ha ha, that's a funny one, Gus! Hey, have you heard this one: A guy walks into a bar…"). I think most business owners would agree that this behaviour is not acceptable, yet they seem tentative about applying rules of conduct when it comes to the computer and Internet.
Specifically, how do you draw the line? In the same way that you have drawn the line with other employee conduct issues that may arise in your company. That is, you write and enforce a policy that addresses the issue of computer / Internet use. Or should I say misuse. Where do you draw the line? You make it clear in your policy how misuse is defined by you. Some typical examples are personal emails, shopping, downloading music, trading stocks, doing personal banking, surfing the web for personal reasons and distributing humour.
The use of porn and off colour jokes are also areas that can lead to claims related to sexual harassment, so be very clear about these. Misuse of time and technology might also include the composing and/or storing of personal documents on the computer (e.g. bank records, resumes, personal letters, etc.) and downloading of copyrighted materials.
Writing the policy and enforcing it are two different issues. You didn't ask about enforcement but I would suggest that you enforce your new policy as vigorously as you do other important ones. Once you have written your policy, have every existing employee (and new employees in the future) sign off as to his or her understanding of and agreement with the policy. In order to deter employees, you might also consider informing them that you will randomly monitor the Internet sites visited (and then do it).
You should add in your policy what the consequences for the misuse will be. For example you might detail or refer to the levels of disciplinary action that might be taken, which could include termination of employment depending on the situation.
Please don't make the mistake of writing the policy and not enforcing it. Once the dust settles, many employees will return to doing what they have always done and gotten away with. When there is little or no enforcement, it is human nature for some people to continue to act without regard for the rules. Why? Because they can.
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