Don't get Caught in the 'Net'

The Globe and Mail recently reported that Canadian workers waste 800 million work hours per year surfing the Internet for personal reasons, according to an Angus Reid Group Inc. poll.  The poll also discovered that only about one-third of employers have an Internet usage policy.

The question that came to my mind is this: why is this front page news?

There will always be employees who waste time at work, whether it to be socializing with other employees, making personal phone calls or taking extended lunches or breaks.  Why should it be any surprise that employees waste time on the Internet?

The difficulty for employers is that it is hard to tell if someone is using the 'Net for personal reasons.  The employee is sitting at their desk, typing on their computer.  The only way you could know that they were wasting time would be to be able to view their monitor or have software in place to monitor Internet traffic.  Such software may not be economically justified for small businesses.

The more interesting question that comes to my mind is this: why is it significant to the pollsters and the media that two-thirds of employers do not have an Internet usage policy?  Does it not go without saying that work time is for work and not for personal activity? 

How many employers have policies that you should not be reading magazines like Motor Trend or Cosmopolitan during work time?  Probably none.  It is so obvious that activities like this would be in conflict with your duty to work for your employer and you would expect to be disciplined if you were caught spending time reading magazines during working hours that it is completely unnecessary to have such a policy.

Why should the Internet be any different?  If you are using the Internet for personal reasons, you are wasting your employer's time and money and you should expect to be disciplined and ultimately fired if it continues.  An employer does not have to have an Internet policy in order to discipline an employee who is using the Internet for personal reasons on work time.

The concept of an Internet Policy seems to be rooted in the mind set of people who think that you need a policy for everything at work.  An employee has a duty of loyalty and an obligation to work for the employer during work time.    The only thing a policy can do is open the door to employees to say that the policy allows them to do the thing about which you are complaining.  In that case, youd be better off without a policy.

Hows this for a policy: streamline your policies and get rid of any that are unnecessary?