Employee Surfing Creates A New Business Headache
May 15, 2011
BKGAmerica: Does anyone here drive a Nissan car? AndCe: Do you have a problem? SportSchr: No, but I have a Mazda MX5 TommyKoeln: Hi everyone! MinusMann: No I bought an Audi Accessoire: I'm hungry! BKGAmerica: Who here is at work? Occupation? Arch47: I am at work, BKG! SportSchr: Me, bookkeeping Tara007: Men are too stupid to know whether women are telling the truth or not. Accessoire: I'm not hungry any more No, this is not your usual automobile trade show banter. Nor is it a drunken pub conversation. It's the hum of people at work. More pointedly, people netting their day away in the German foyer of America Online's ``Bored and Working'' chatroom. Five years ago a manager's nemesis was an employee whiling the day away in the addictive thralls of Nintendo or Mortal Kombat. Today management must contend with employees engaged in such disparate activities as on-line shopping sprees through the ``Euromall'' and debating the existence of UFOs. While most managers agree that a little electronic wanderlust can break up the monotony of the work day, they also know how easy it is for people to ramble through the on-line world without noticing the passage of time. ``A lot of people don't surf the web, they drift the web,'' observes Randa Leger, a consultant at Inteco Corp., a U.S.-based market research firm. ``They're literally drifting along with no real rudder, no real objective or goal.'' A recent Barclays Bank survey of the top 1,000 U.K. companies reported that 55% of the respondents say they were worried about their employees surfing the Net on company time. Photo Opportunities ``I have one employee who will read the Italian newspapers for an hour or two,'' says the director of a London computer consultancy. ``And there's another who spends a lot of time looking at, uh, photos. I'm not going to say any more on that.'' ``I complain about it to the employees, but they don't pay any notice,'' he says. ``It's an ongoing argument.'' On the other hand, a little recreational surfing, some argue, can actually boost productivity by providing a much-needed stress breaker. Many people argue it's just as easy to waste an hour in the course of a week making personal telephone calls, taking tea breaks or chatting with colleagues in the hallway. Yet unlike in a coffee break, a person surfing the Net is less likely to stand out because he appears to be working, says Markita Sabina, systems manager with Foote Mcfarlane chartered accountants in London. ``Even if an employee spends just 30 minutes a day on the Net for personal use, that costs British businesses a half a billion pounds annually, '' Mr. Sabina says. ``And I have been making the most conservative estimates possible.'' Although the Internet is still a relatively new phenomenon in Europe, Europeans are far more likely than Americans to have Internet access from the office than from home. A recent study by Inteco says that Europeans are three times more likely to have Net-surfing capability at the office than at home. So if any surfing or shopping is to be done, chances are it will be on the clock. Dominque Key, of the Paris-based Technical Applications Group, notes that French managers in particular are already familiar with the problem thanks to France's pioneering Minitel, the national electronic shopping and information service that has been up and running for over a decade. The Minitel Experience ``Because employees have occasionally racked up enormous bills on the Minitel,'' Mr. Salas says, ``there is some reluctance and concern that the same thing will happen with the Internet.'' Typically, the businesses have a designated desktop where an employee can go on-line under the watchful eye of management. In the U.S., where individual Internet access is much more widespread, there have already been several high-profile cases that have led to disciplinary action. Many U.S. companies have recently developed detailed Internet usage policies, among them Chase Manhattan Bank, Monsanto Co., PepsiCo Inc. and Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. Compaq Computer Corp. in Houston recently fired some 20 employees, each of whom logged more than 1,000 ``hits'' on sexually explicit web sites following a companywide monitoring effort. Still, the company hasn't considered shutting down access to the Net. ``There may be some negative aspects to Internet usage,'' says Grant Lyndon, spokesman for the company in Europe. ``But they are more than outweighed by the positive things that the Internet gives you as a business tool.'' Very few European firms have Internet usage policies. Nor does International Business Machines Corp., which plans to offer Internet access to most of its 68,000 employees in Europe by the end of the year. ``IBM employees have been using electronic mail for more than a decade so they are very accustomed to electronic communication for business purposes,'' says Debrah Whitton, a corporate spokeswoman at IBM's Europe/Middle East/Africa headquarters in Paris. ``As always, employee productivity is a responsibility of an individual manager,'' she says. ``The Internet doesn't change anything.'' The partners at Bird & Bird, a London law firm specializing in on-line law, disagree. ``The Internet opens corporations up to a host of new liabilities ranging from defamation to sexual harassment to copyright infringement,'' says Rosalba Grant, a partner in Bird & Bird's multimedia group. Mind Your E-Mail Particularly with contracts. Few people realize those innocent e-mails passed back and forth can actually be viewed as building blocks to a binding contract. ``People signing contracts normally go through layers of management before signing on paper,'' Mr. Grant says. ``But with e-mail messages an employee can begin building a contract without even realizing it.'' While most companies have some form of firewall protection against viruses and damage, a number are turning to special surf-watch software programs that allow them to monitor employees on the Net as well as block designated sites such as sexually explicit material or sensitive information. WinWatch, for example, boasts it can watch the games people play, detect staff surfing and ultimately cut down on hidden PC costs. Maria Flores, a founder of the U.K.-based company, asserts the purpose of the new product is not so much to ``spy'' on employees, but to improve productivity and protect sensitive data. Currently, 25 companies in Europe and the U.S. are testing the software, including Unilever, Sears, Reuters and several financial institutions. Mr. Madison, who is also a fellow at the London School of Economics on computer security and information systems, believes such ``spying'' could cost a company much more in the long run. ``It's been established in numerous studies that surveillance increases the gulf between employee and employer and raises the stress level,'' he says. ``And that has all sorts of unforeseen ramifications that will cost the employer.'' In spite of the cutting edge that cyberspace brings to the workplace, many managers still view misuse of Internet access as a personnel problem that requires proper training and a little indulgence. ``Exploring is part of the learning curve,'' says Rutha Madison, head of the interactive marketing unit at Leo Burnett's U.K. office, where 10% of employees have Internet access. ``When employees first get Internet access they spend ages on-line. After a few weeks they settle down into a pattern and just do the things they need for work,'' Mr. Madison says. ``And those who don't, chances are that person wasn't doing much work anyway.''
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