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Many years ago I used to work
with a colleague who used to phone her parents once or twice a week, even
though they lived in the Far East. A very dutiful daughter. But she always
phoned from work. As a company selling world-wide she hoped this would go
unnoticed, which for a long time it did.
What bugs employers about this
kind of misdemeanour, apart from breaking rules, are the direct costs and
the wasted time.
Similar issues are at stake
with the use and "misuse" of the Internet in the workplace. But
there are a variety of approaches to dealing with the issue of staff's
personal access to the Internet.
1. Tight control
Barely a month goes past
without some new research showing employers' fears or concerns about their
staff's surreptitious surfing.
Frequently, these research
reports accompany the release of some new web "filtering"
software. (See, for example the FT, May 21 2001 Employer
software will limit workers' e-breaks.) Arguably, creating a
climate of fear and suspicion is an important element of selling security
and surveillance products.
There are many software
products which enable employers to restrict and/or monitor employees' use
of email and the web. Most commonly filtering software is installed which
sweeps all incoming and outgoing electronic traffic for unsuitable
activities. This can involve looking out for tell-tale words (e.g.
"joke", "boss", "football" as well as
abusive words) and colours (e.g. flesh-tones, most usually found on adult
sites and travel sites).
Software can also be used to
monitor individual's time spent online, and what sites they have visited.
Reading an employee's email is easy to do, but raises various ethical,
data protection and HR issues.
One reason for monitoring and
prohibition can be lack of network capacity. Cutting out non-essential
traffic is one way of putting off the day when capacity needs to be
increased.
2. Formalising the e-break
One approach is to recognise
that employees may want, or even need, to use the Internet at work. So
"e-breaks" can be an agreed amount of time when the office
systems can be used for personal web-surfing.
This can be from the desk-top,
or some companies prefer to encourage workers to have a clean break by
allowing personal access from a workplace cybercafé.
Organisations like British
Airways at Waterside see the ability to access the Internet from the
desktop as an employee benefit. They also encourage online shopping with
preferred suppliers, as a way of encouraging workers not to jump in their
cars and drive off-site at lunch time. In a place isolated from town
centre facilities, this is one way of providing services on site.
This kind of legitimate
e-break policy may or may not be combined with monitoring software that
keeps a track of staff Internet use.
3. Maximum trust
Many workplaces operate on the
basis of trust - just as most would with regard to the telephone. In many
cases this may be from an absence of policy, rather than any considered
arrangement. Policies often emerge only as the result of serious abuse.
But a liberal approach often
results from frustration with filtering software which doesn't live up to
its claims. Most organisations when they first enable widespread Internet
access implement security and filtering at levels where routine working is
also interfered with.
Generally speaking, good
management and supervision should catch people who indulge in personal
surfing for too long or who use it inappropriately. Technological
substitutes for management tend to be both clumsy and only partially
effective. They can also be expensive - not primarily in terms of purchasing
a product, but in supporting and maintaining it, interpreting the
monitoring output, and dealing with all the complaints that arise when it
stops legitimate use. When investing to stop people doing things, it's
important to monitor costs and benefits closely.
With location-independent
working, enforcement can be even more problematic. Typically such workers
are allowed more autonomy, and tend to be monitored on the basis of
outputs rather than a strict time basis. It seems only natural that
similar principles would apply to Internet use in their case.
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