Perusing today’s newspaper, I came across an article about two managers at a nearby municipality who got caught with a stash of pornography on their work computers. One manager resigned and the other was suspended. I’m guessing that the reaction of their bosses will pale in comparison to the reactions of their spouses.
It is important to note that collecting web-based adult pornography is not against the law. The issue here is that it was against their employer’s web policy.
Most reasonable people agree that collecting pornography on company computers is not a very good idea, there’s not much to dispute there. What is less clear is exactly what constitutes a reasonable policy for using company computers for personal use.
I first confronted this question back in the 1990s while serving as CEO of a company with employees in offices scattered across the U.S. We were early adapters of the web and e-mail at work. Early in our learning curve on this new endeavor, it was apparent that e-mail was enhancing communication and web use was helping our employees to solve business problems. But we also noticed that employees were spending an awful lot of time surfing the web at work, and like many others, we were concerned about potential loss of productivity. To address this, we purchased software that limited personal use of the web. It did indeed keep employees from shopping on the web, but it also was a barrier to a great deal of information that would help people in their jobs. Plus, it led to a great deal of dissatisfaction and frustration.
In retrospect, this ‘Big Brother’ approach to the web at work was a lousy idea.
Focusing on the big picture
Clearly, personal use of the computer at work costs employers a great deal. Several studies have demonstrated that employers are losing more than four hours a week to personal Internet use. A survey by AOL and salary.com put the number of hours that employees fritter away online at about two hours per day. These studies estimate the cost to employers at more than $700 billion.
But focusing on personal use at work misses the overall picture. A University of Maryland study about personal use of the Internet at work showed that although workers do indeed use the web for personal business while at work – an average of 3.7 hours a week – they are also spending more time at home using the web for work-related matters – an average of 5.9 hours. No matter how you look at it, the web and e-mail bring every employer a big gain.
Employers have a great deal of latitude on how they treat this issue. The courts have held that an employer does indeed have the right to monitor e-mail and web access. Employers are within their rights to restrict personal use of the web if they so desire, but as the web becomes a fact of life, there seems to be a trend toward a more relaxed policy. We’ve seen this concept taking root among the many employers that we represent. Progressive employers have learned that broad guidelines encouraging appropriate use work better than a restrictive approach.
A heavy-handed approach will rankle your most creative and productive employees. For the few hours of productivity supposedly gained, you may wind up losing your best people.
This is an important and emerging topic on the minds of many employers, and one that we’ll revisit. In future posts, we’ll explore various approaches to creating effective web policies.

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