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.
Comments on Surf at Work to Get Yourself Fired
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2 Posted by fjcamp2002 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:00PM EDT Report Abuse
It is a very small step from sending a Happy Birthday email to your sister to spending hours instant messaging her or your other relatives and friends. While my employer probably would not fire someone for sending a personal email or two - even though they say they will - I'm not going to bet my job on it. Work at work, play at home.
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3 Posted by cnull on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:27PM EDT Report Abuse
On the contrary, myanke: I've run numerous businesses and had to deal with work/life balance of my staff for years. But I know what ruling your employees with an iron fist can do to morale and thus productivity... overbearing rules like these are counterproductive and just plain mean.
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4 Posted by gdlind on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:07PM EDT Report Abuse
if your job is on the computer all day long, like mine, you take breaks by checking yahoo and google news, maybe checking your personal web-based email account. Just think of it as my way of taking the allowed breaks that employees do outside the back door with a smoke break.
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5 Posted by myanke2000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:31PM EDT Report Abuse
What a person does on their break time is none of my business, but when they are getting paid to do a job, then they should do the job. Many of the places that I have worked, smokers took an extra 2 or 3 "smoke breaks" every day. Sure it was only to 3 to 5 minutes per smoke break but theft is theft. Two 3 minute smoke breaks per day adds up to about 26 hours per year. Three 5 minute smoke breaks would be 65 hours. It all adds up and contributes to the actual cost of labor. Is this counterproductive and mean for a business owner to look at these numbers and want to eliminate waste? I don't think so.
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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.
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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.
1 Posted by myanke2000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:31PM EDT Report Abuse
Spoken like a person that has never had to hire people for your own business.