Internet use at work
Discussion
A friend of mine has been told he has the highest internet usage of the entire company he works for and the company are looking at going down the disciplinary route.
The thing is he swears blind that he rarely uses the internet at work for anything other than work related stuff.
His manager told him the printout of his internet usage is about an inch thick and he has a disciplinary hearing in 7 days.
Is he entitled to a copy of the report / evidence they have prior to the "hearing"?
What could cause such a big report if he genuinely doesn’t use the web that much?
He's asking me for advice as I know a bit about computers but this isn't really my area.
The thing is he swears blind that he rarely uses the internet at work for anything other than work related stuff.
His manager told him the printout of his internet usage is about an inch thick and he has a disciplinary hearing in 7 days.
Is he entitled to a copy of the report / evidence they have prior to the "hearing"?
What could cause such a big report if he genuinely doesn’t use the web that much?
He's asking me for advice as I know a bit about computers but this isn't really my area.
Gosh, a sphincter tightening thought for most people on here.
It's a bit odd that he swears blind that he hasn't been browsing much if what his boss is saying is true.
It could also be that what he thinks constitutes little browsing actually isn't.
For instance if he spends half an hour on facebook moving between pages quite frequently, that in itself, could generate a massive number of web hits, if you think that every time he navigates to a new page it counts it as a web visit.
I'm the highest web user in my company, luckily I run the IT so I'm safe, but it's quite funny just how much dossing around people do on the web, even if they don't think it's much.
If it's based purely on bandwidth used (which I doubt since the boss talks about pages of web logs) then he could have reached that by downloading large data files for business purposes, although I'd imagine he'd be aware of that if that were the case.
Is anyone else getting dealt with for this, or is he the only one?
It's a bit odd that he swears blind that he hasn't been browsing much if what his boss is saying is true.
It could also be that what he thinks constitutes little browsing actually isn't.
For instance if he spends half an hour on facebook moving between pages quite frequently, that in itself, could generate a massive number of web hits, if you think that every time he navigates to a new page it counts it as a web visit.
I'm the highest web user in my company, luckily I run the IT so I'm safe, but it's quite funny just how much dossing around people do on the web, even if they don't think it's much.
If it's based purely on bandwidth used (which I doubt since the boss talks about pages of web logs) then he could have reached that by downloading large data files for business purposes, although I'd imagine he'd be aware of that if that were the case.
Is anyone else getting dealt with for this, or is he the only one?
In the past when i have worked in an office or employers premises i have had PH set to display the maximum number of posts per thread, as each refresh/new page is counted as a 'hit'
I'd advise him to swap keyboard, monitor and mouse plugs with someone elses computer if he wants to surf.
I'd advise him to swap keyboard, monitor and mouse plugs with someone elses computer if he wants to surf.
If he is sure he has not visited the list of web sites that the log file shows as being visited, then it must be clarified that the log file relates to his computer/login name during his hours of work.
Is it possible that night staff are using his computer out of hours or that someone else in the company is using his login to browse the web? It can be easy to make a mistake tying web traffic to a specific user as an IT administrator but I would really hope they have triple checked that the log files really do represent your friends Internet traffic.
Is it possible that night staff are using his computer out of hours or that someone else in the company is using his login to browse the web? It can be easy to make a mistake tying web traffic to a specific user as an IT administrator but I would really hope they have triple checked that the log files really do represent your friends Internet traffic.
If he is just using it for work relating things then when he gets presented with the list to explain all he has to do is go down the list and explain to them what it was exactly that he was doing on that page which was work related. If the web address does not give him any clues as to what it might have been then I would suggest him telling his boss that he needs to see the webpage to explain further as he does not recall the site/visit from just the URL (address).
If he manages to do this for pretty much all of the list and they still want to go down the disciplinary route then he will need to fight back by asking if he is still the highest user of the net for Personal useage...chances are, if he managed to explain away the largest part of the list as work use that he isn't. To discipline him and not the majority of the work-force would be unfair and he can claim as such.
Another thing he may wish to look at arguing if he DID infact use it for non-work use...
Does the company have a usage policy for the internet? If not, why not and how was he to reasonably know how much pearsonal use was too much. If they do, and it states that someone can not use the works internet at all for personal use, then the fact that he saw no one else getting told off or reminded of these policys means that it was reasonable for him to assume these were not enforced or no longer in use.
Lastly, If he wants to go down the route of saying it might not of been him then he needs to make sure that the data is not computer and time stamped, IE it has a record next to the webpage visited of not just the user but the computer, and the time it was accessed.
If it does not then he could use whatever data is missing to add some sort of reasonable doubt. IE, if it is not tied to a machine, only a user, then someone could know his login and is using it to browse the web. (Check that works computers will allow two of the same user to be logged in at once!)
I would only do the latter if he is really clutching at straws to keep his job though as it really is into desperate territory!
If he manages to do this for pretty much all of the list and they still want to go down the disciplinary route then he will need to fight back by asking if he is still the highest user of the net for Personal useage...chances are, if he managed to explain away the largest part of the list as work use that he isn't. To discipline him and not the majority of the work-force would be unfair and he can claim as such.
Another thing he may wish to look at arguing if he DID infact use it for non-work use...
Does the company have a usage policy for the internet? If not, why not and how was he to reasonably know how much pearsonal use was too much. If they do, and it states that someone can not use the works internet at all for personal use, then the fact that he saw no one else getting told off or reminded of these policys means that it was reasonable for him to assume these were not enforced or no longer in use.
Lastly, If he wants to go down the route of saying it might not of been him then he needs to make sure that the data is not computer and time stamped, IE it has a record next to the webpage visited of not just the user but the computer, and the time it was accessed.
If it does not then he could use whatever data is missing to add some sort of reasonable doubt. IE, if it is not tied to a machine, only a user, then someone could know his login and is using it to browse the web. (Check that works computers will allow two of the same user to be logged in at once!)
I would only do the latter if he is really clutching at straws to keep his job though as it really is into desperate territory!
Coincidentally a chap from Comms passed me today and mentioned he'd been getting a pile of emails recently from surfcontrol reporting that I was trying to access restricted sites in the gaming category. I didn't know what could be happening as I don't go to gaming websites or play flash games etc in the office. However after a little investigation of the sites that my computer was trying to contact I found that it was because I had a copy of Stardock's Fences installed to organise my desktop shortcuts. Unbeknownst to me it also installs a download manager (similar to Steam) which was trying to talk to Stardock's servers - the gaming link came from the fact that Stardock also make games.
So it could well be that he is perfectly innocent, and it's simply some piece of software trying to do something against company policy. I'd advise him to find out what sites have been accessed and go from there.
So it could well be that he is perfectly innocent, and it's simply some piece of software trying to do something against company policy. I'd advise him to find out what sites have been accessed and go from there.
at the company I recently left, all internet users had unique log in id's. this was widely abused, with several cases where the shift crews were surfing at night using day staff id's. the graduates & interns weren't supposed to have access, yet all of them surfed using the same login given by a lax manager.
if he's legit, all he needs to do is prove he was away from his machine on enough occasions to cast doubt on the evidence.
if he's legit, all he needs to do is prove he was away from his machine on enough occasions to cast doubt on the evidence.
10JH said:
If he has just been using it for work related stuff then he has nothing to worry about.
Is there any possibility he might be visiting some sort of site that auto-refreshes to update itself? Then leaving that open for a large part of the day as he checks it regularly? Just a thought.
Certainly worth checking out. I fire up my browser and leave a good few sites on all day, checking them periodically. If he does this it might be a case of them trying to say he spends all day on the internet.Is there any possibility he might be visiting some sort of site that auto-refreshes to update itself? Then leaving that open for a large part of the day as he checks it regularly? Just a thought.
shirt said:
the graduates & interns weren't supposed to have access, yet all of them surfed using the same login given by a lax manager.
Depends on the companys security policy, but some places consider letting someone else know your login to be a bigger offence than overusing the itnernet.moleamol said:
Is there any possibility he might be visiting some sort of site that auto-refreshes to update itself? Then leaving that open for a large part of the day as he checks it regularly? Just a thought.
News and sports feeds are a bugger for that, I know a lot of people who leave the cricket scores page open when there's a game on and it refreshes it'self regularly but they're only looking at it a few times per hour.lestag said:
FWIW,Listening to internet radio, is one of the biggest bandwidth "stealers"
or any type of streamingjustin.tv or iplayer etc...
OP - has your friend ever signed or acknowledged receipt of anything relating to an Work Internet Use Policy
if not, then how could he know 'how much is too much'
and has the company got some of quota warning on their monitoring system to send your friend an email saying 'warning, you have used 80% of this months browsing allowance'
They've offered him a print out - well hooray, but that's only half (or a hundredth) of the story. He should ask for the records of all the other staff so that he is in a position to show that his usage is not excessive. They will refuse - I presume - and that will be that as he can claim he doesn't have the evidence needed to rebut their claim [obviously he needs to attend with a union rep or a good friend]. Or if they do give him the info all he has to do is find someone who has been looking at anything dodgy and ask why they aren't being dealt with in the same way he is.
Thanks for all the info I’ll be talking to him later today
He did say that on his first day he signed something about internet use but doesn't remember the exact wording, he said they are allowed to browse the web during lunch breaks however.
I would very much like to see the report before he has this meeting, do you think he should be entitled to a copy immediately?
He did say that on his first day he signed something about internet use but doesn't remember the exact wording, he said they are allowed to browse the web during lunch breaks however.
I would very much like to see the report before he has this meeting, do you think he should be entitled to a copy immediately?
k off
I can only assume, as other have said, that he opens some sort of auto-refreshing site that accounts for all these hits. I guess it's possible his PC has some kind of trojan that is generating http traffic too.
Whatever the cause, I would be tempted to question what the actual problem is. Is there a problem with the work he is producing? Presumably if he was browsing the web all day, he wouldn't be producing anything else. As they're not questioning his work, I'd suggest the web traffic does not equal time spent browsing. If this is causing an infrastructure problem (ie he's taking too much bandwidth) then a "oops, I didn't realise, sorry" should suffice.
My last company were generally ok with Internet usage as long as work was still getting done. I personally used to browse for 5 minutes every hour or so, but take short lunch breaks (or no break at all), so it never affected my work.
Whatever the cause, I would be tempted to question what the actual problem is. Is there a problem with the work he is producing? Presumably if he was browsing the web all day, he wouldn't be producing anything else. As they're not questioning his work, I'd suggest the web traffic does not equal time spent browsing. If this is causing an infrastructure problem (ie he's taking too much bandwidth) then a "oops, I didn't realise, sorry" should suffice.
My last company were generally ok with Internet usage as long as work was still getting done. I personally used to browse for 5 minutes every hour or so, but take short lunch breaks (or no break at all), so it never affected my work.
Mr_S said:
Thanks for all the info I’ll be talking to him later today
He did say that on his first day he signed something about internet use but doesn't remember the exact wording, he said they are allowed to browse the web during lunch breaks however.
I would very much like to see the report before he has this meeting, do you think he should be entitled to a copy immediately?
The ACAS guide to disciplinary procedures state that he should get a letter inviting him to a disciplinary meeting which will outline the case against him, also at that time he should receive all the evidence that the company plan to use. He should also be given reasonable time to prepare his case.He did say that on his first day he signed something about internet use but doesn't remember the exact wording, he said they are allowed to browse the web during lunch breaks however.
I would very much like to see the report before he has this meeting, do you think he should be entitled to a copy immediately?
If I were him I would ask to see copies of the company's disciplinary procedure and also the computer usage policy. If the company have neither one or both of these then they're on shaky ground.
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