Surf at Work to Get Yourself Fired
Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:46PM EDT
See Comments (11)
You gotta love this story: Employers are cracking down, hard, on doing anything remotely related to personal activities on the job.
No, we're not talking about workers spending all day on eBay and Pogo. We're talking about a woman who was sending emails to co-workers about going to lunch. We're talking about a guy who worked for the state of Virginia and spent a few minutes writing a humorous photo caption for a local newspaper contest.
It should come as no surprise that many of these infractions have been reported by government agencies, those great defenders of the working man, but they're hardly alone. Does sending or receiving five personal emails a day constitute a fireable offense? Or are employers looking for any excuse they can find to trim their ranks? Hey, I understand if you need to get rid of some bad seeds in your ranks (and "employment at will" contracts ensure that you can fire anyone for any reason at any time), but why come up with a lame excuse like "you sent a 'Happy birthday' email to your sister?
It's ridiculous firings like this that make me post about software to get around these rules, though realistically stuff like WorkFriendly won't keep you from getting fired if the IT department analyzes your web history. It only helps keep you safe from prying eyes who happen to see what's on your monitor.
But really: If your company is that worried about people doing anything non-work related on company time, install content filters to prevent people from going to sites you don't want them to. Shoulder half the burden, and stop firing people for such stupid, minor "transgressions" like checking the box scores.
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7 Posted by melwood@rogers.com on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:16PM EDT Report Abuse
One of the responsibilities an employee has after accepted pay for work is to contribute to the team, and add effiencies. Spending time at work performing non-work related activities is letting your team down and not living up to your responsibilities. An employer does not have to be Draconian, employees have to take responsibility for their actions. An employee knows, or should know, how much time spent at work on non-work tasks is acceptable and if someone is doing too much of this non-effective work other employees should speak to them. If this does not work than involve the employer, but try to create a harmonious atmosphere by setting the example of what is acceptable and what is not to new or time-wasting employees. That is how we do it at my work place and it works just fine.
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8 Posted by carlolp on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:18PM EDT Report Abuse
Is it not really a question of comon sense. The human brain, as proven by scientific research, needs breaks. Each human brain being different the length and frequency of breaks needed is different. As it would be impossible to set fair rules based on the above, I would say the way to determin the usefullness of an employee is by measuring the productivity/results rather than the lengths of his/her breaks. I had an employee who spent half his day surfing. In the other half he was more productive than any other employee's one full day. Should I have fired him?
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9 Posted by rockymountains90 on Tue Jul 24, 2007 8:32AM EDT Report Abuse
Us employees who are "chained" to a computer all day should remember that our employers are paying us to work, not to surf the internet. Of course, breaks are necessary every hour or so, which is understandable. What we need to do is control ourselves during those breaks. Limit the breaks to only five minutes...and not let it develop into ten or twenty, even thirty minutes.
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10 Posted by phuck_stick on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:10PM EDT Report Abuse
I surf at work. Sometimes for hours at a time. But when the boss needs my help getting the latest shipment out the door, I'm all business. That's what he pays me for, expertise, not doing mindless crap to look busy. He has even stated "I don't care what you do as long as the job gets done." It all depends on what your job is.
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11 Posted by jwestbrook88 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:45PM EDT Report Abuse
I work the 12am-8am shift some nights, and on those nights I do browse yahoo (obviously). I don't think my employer would mind because I answer phones, and no one's calling this late. We just have to have someone here, always.
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6 Posted by cutiealexusd2003 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:32PM EDT Report Abuse
I don't understand If an employee has completed all their required assignmnets. Why can't they send e-mail to employees for luch dates, or even emails to family, surf the net as long as their not viewing pornography. I think managers or whoever are having to much time worrying about the small stuff. If work wasn't getting done it's a problem. Other than that get a life.