If you have ever surfed the Internet at work for personal reasons you may well have been alarmed to read the recent news reports of employees getting fired for excessive use of the Web.
In June this year an industrial tribunal upheld the sacking of an IT manager, Lois Franxhi, who had used the Internet to book her holiday in work time.
Her employer, Cheshire-based Focus Management Consultants, argued that spending hours searching for a holiday constituted professional misconduct.
More recently, a secretary at a London firm was sacked after several warnings, on the basis that she was spending so much time on the Internet she was unable to perform her job properly.
She said she suffered from ‘Internet addiction’ and is now claiming unfair dismissal. If she is successful, she could claim compensation under the Disability Discrimination Act.
Of course, these are extreme cases – after all, most of us would not risk our jobs for a daily fix of the Internet.
Nevertheless, it is easy to see how people can lose track of time when they start surfing the net, as Alastair Brunker, an employment solicitor at law firm Lewis Silkin points out.
“When some people get the Internet they treat it like a new toy – they just want to play with it.”
Whether or not the court accepts the secretary’s addiction argument, one thing is certain, Internet abuse at work is certainly on the rise.
“These cases show up the need for employers to inform their staff of what they can and can’t do. Companies should have a policy in place that clearly spells out any disciplinary action that could be taken,” said Brunker.
In the travel industry, where only a minority of staff have access to the Internet, many companies – among them Thomas Cook, Carlson Wagonlit, Hogg Robinson, and American Express Travel – have introduced policies to ensure staff are not wasting time or, more importantly, putting IT systems in danger.
At Carlson Wagonlit, the Internet is used purely for business reasons.
“I heard of one major travel company recently whose head office was unable to operate for two days because of an external communication,” said director of human resources Sue Kavanagh.
“It is not that we are making rules for the sake of it, but receiving e-mails or downloading stuff from the Internet poses risks to internal systems.”
Head of human resources at Co-op Travelcare Pam Oliver sees her company’s policy as a preventative measure.
“The company has never had any problems with e-mail or Internet use. We introduced a policy because we saw it to be good practice, not because we were reacting to an incident.
“After all, we have policies covering handling cash and how to book a holiday and computer usage is just another business and computers are another aspect of business. People need to know what the rules and regulations are,” she said.
Restricting staff to business purposes may seem like an extreme measure to prevent excessive use but Brunker says that it is the safest option.
“Employers should be nipping this in the bud by making sure the travel industry is no exception,” he said.
Unsurprisingly Microsoft Expedia, the Internet travel service, is not following the general trend.
The company may not allow its staff to receive personal e-mails, but when it comes to the Internet they are free to surf as they please.
“The more exposure staff get to the Internet the better. They are free to use it within reason. The only no-no is accessing or downloading pornographic sites – that is a dismissable offence,” said UK manager James Vaile.