Using the Internet at work

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princeperch

Original Poster:

7,931 posts

248 months

Tuesday 6th September 2016
quotequote all
I am an employment lawyer. I work for a large organisation. We have various policies in place for employees to do with use of Internet at work and emails using the work email address.

I deal with lots of matters in my practice however of late I've noticed a trend for management to be disciplining people for excessive Internet use or use of the work email for stuff like groupon or signing up for daily emails

A few matters I've dealt with involve people being given informal advice or informal warning quite a few years ago, and then , years later, they are pulled up in their Internet use and the end result is that they are sacked.

Now, our policy is pretty loose, I.e you are allowed to use the Internet at work for personal matters as long as the use is reasonable, and use should be contained to either use age before work or during work breaks. No of course, I would imagine that pretty much everyone who works where I do breaches this policy. But what is too much? What if you can still do your job/ had good appraisals / but by chance they check your internet records?

Quite frankly I've seen a few Internet use records and in the cold light of day , on a spreadsheet they look bad. But I would imagine a few pistonheaders usage is similar.

If you are an employee, what is your works policy, and have you ever fallen foul of it?

princeperch

Original Poster:

7,931 posts

248 months

Tuesday 6th September 2016
quotequote all
Sheets Tabuer said:
Does your firm charge by the hour?
We charge by the hours but the employees who are being sacked/disciplined normally dont

princeperch

Original Poster:

7,931 posts

248 months

Tuesday 6th September 2016
quotequote all
It's interesting PH is mentioned. Of some of the Internet records I've had to scrutinise for litigation after dismissal , let's just say pistonheads has popped up in the Internet usage records in the past !