Keeping an Eye on Internet Usage in the Workplace It is Monday morning and employees are just arriving at work. They have a busy week ahead. What is the first thing they do -- log on to their computers. Even today’s youngest professionals were at the very least alive before the world wide web became popular. How then is our reliance on the internet so strong in the modern workplace? If you use a Blackberry handheld device, you were one of millions of users that experienced total system failure and delays on Tuesday evening of April 17, 2007. A modern office can be crippled by the flip of a switch rendering the most experienced employees virtually ineffective. How did we ever work effectively without the internet? Access to inappropriate material, loss of productivity, introduction of viruses on to the network, security risks, and harassment liabilities are just a few of the dangers a company faces by simply giving their workforce access to the internet. Employers have an ongoing challenge to limit (or restrict) these activities and the solutions need to evolve along with the technology. It’s everywhere. On average, 40% of employees use the internet while at work for personal reasons. This may involve looking up stocks, checking a bank statement, online shopping, or tracking the score of a sports team. It may be difficult for an employer to justify restricting these activities. We all enjoy that 15 minute coffee break; many will argue that logging into the local newspaper’s website is no different than sitting in the break room with the actual paper itself. Approximately 40 million Americans have internet and/or email access at work. While this only represents about 1/3 of the workforce, it is growing by leaps and bounds. At the dawn of the digital age, the primary concern had been restricting the access to internal information. Now websites like Google.com and Wikipedia.org, not to mention the ability to connect to others via email and chat, gives us access to an infinite knowledgebase of answers. But what are we asking? Log on The first step that companies can take in order to protect themselves is to develop an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) or similar company guideline. By creating a standard to which all employees are held gives companies a basis to act on. If your employer’s AUP states that they can monitor the websites visited and emails sent on your work station, and employees intentionally visit offensive websites or are caught sending confidential information over email, there is no question that they violated company policy. To create an effective AUP it helps to begin by defining who the "owners" of the policy are. That can be an individual or a group. They maintain the responsibility of creating the policy, not enforcing it. It may be helpful to open the doors for everybody in the company to submit anonymous comments, suggestions, or stories about company internet use and take those into consideration when writing the AUP. After a policy has been created, it is important to communicate that to the existing employee base (moving forward it should be a part of the hiring process or company "onboarding" process). It is important to have this policy in a place that is accessible to everyone. That may be a company server, posted in a break room, etc. Finally, be sure to have the owners schedule regular reviews of the policy, possibly repeating the entire process when necessary. What, how often, and when A more challenging reality is the loss of productivity due to seemingly "harmless" internet usage. "Harmless" is a subjective term and does not mean the same thing to everybody. If "Employee A" sees "Employee B" browsing a website that Employee A finds offensive, Employee A may have the right to file a suit against Employee B, as well as the employer. Employees should ask themselves the following questions: Would your employer approve the amount of time you spend on non-essential websites? Would it be OK to leave your desk to do the same ‘research’ you’re doing online? i.e., go shopping for a car, go to the mall, stay in the break room and read the paper for an hour, or stop by the music store to buy your favorite album. If your boss were standing right behind you, would you be doing what you’re doing? The reality is when we are at work, it is assumed that everything we do is being logged, tracked, and reported - and the employer is doing this legally. I know that somewhere on a server in my building there is a log of each website I researched to compose this article. For a complete bibliography, I’d be happy to put you in touch with my company’s IT Director. Log off In George Orwell’s novel, 1984, London has evolved into a totalitarian government controlled by "Big Brother." The reality is that our relationships with our employers are not equal to our rights as citizens. A Big Brother is necessary, to a certain degree, in the workplace. Unlike the Big Brother in Orwell’s novel, Human Resources and IT departments will go to great lengths to provide you with detailed documents that spell out the allowances and restrictions of your internet usage upfront. As an employee, you should be given full access to read, digest, and understand exactly what your employer plans to monitor or restrict. Whatever your organization’s specific AUP is, remember that while you are at work you are using somebody else’s equipment on somebody else’s time. Most importantly - there is always somebody else watching