Employees at CT state Department of Veterans Affairs dismissed for using eBay

[mandy]

Employees at the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs, including its commissioner, were reprimanded, and some dismissed, for accessing eBay and porn sites from their work PCs. 

My question for those of you who are either employers or employees:  do you (or does your employer) have an Internet access policy?

An investigation of computer misuse at the state Department of Veterans Affairs resulted not only in the dismissal of the agency's chief fiscal officer but also an extraordinary and previously undisclosed reprimand of its commissioner, Linda S. Schwartz, state records show.

Schwartz, an appointee of former Gov. John G. Rowland who continues to serve in the cabinet of Gov. M. Jodi Rell, was warned to adhere to state and agency computer policies after she was found last fall to have committed a "de facto violation" by using her state-owned computer on 10 out of 46 work days to access the Internet auction site eBay....

full article: http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16501519&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=6

[maggie777]

My question for those of you who are either employers or employees:  do you (or does your employer) have an Internet access policy?

I don't have an Internet policy.  I'd feel uncomfortable printing a company rules handbook and handing it to my one employee.  ;D

[amy]

[quote author=maggie777 link=topic=3441.msg12963#msg12963 date=1145909553]

My question for those of you who are either employers or employees:  do you (or does your employer) have an Internet access policy?

I don't have an Internet policy.  I'd feel uncomfortable printing a company rules handbook and handing it to my one employee.  ;D
[/quote]

I can understand why you wouldn't want to come across as a total ogre by leaving policy memos on your employees' desks if you have one or two workers, but if you had 50 employees it would become necessary to have written policies.

[xppman]

Reminds me of that whack job    head
Helen who lost her job at the
VA for accessing ebay boards while at work.

She's back at it from her new job as a nurse at the school. 

[mandy]

She's back at it from her new job as a nurse at the school.

A judge said it's OK. 

Saying surfing the web is equivalent to reading a newspaper or talking on the phone, an administrative law judge has suggested that only a reprimand is appropriate as punishment for a city worker accused of failing to heed warnings to stay off the Internet.

Administrative Law Judge John Spooner reached his decision in the case of Toquir Choudhri, a 14-year veteran of the Department of Education who had been accused of ignoring supervisors who told him to stop browsing the Internet at work.

The ruling came after Mayor Michael Bloomberg fired a worker in the city's legislative office in Albany earlier this year after he saw the man playing a game of solitaire on his computer...

full article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12462332/

[maggie777]

Saying surfing the web is equivalent to reading a newspaper or talking on the phone,

He's wrong.

[rose]

Saying surfing the web is equivalent to reading a newspaper or talking on the phone,

It's not the same. A newspaper doesn't pose a security risk to your network.  What if the worker infects your network with a download?  What if the worker downloads illegal material with your company's computer?

[valleygirl]

[quote author=maggie777 link=topic=3441.msg12963#msg12963 date=1145909553]

My question for those of you who are either employers or employees:  do you (or does your employer) have an Internet access policy?

I don't have an Internet policy.  I'd feel uncomfortable printing a company rules handbook and handing it to my one employee.  ;D
[/quote]

I stapled my Internet access policy to my employees' foreheads (just kidding).  I printed out a list of online safety tips and pinned it on the office bulletin board and I installed the siteadvisor plug-in on everyone's browsers.

[mandy]

PC World has a related article.  There's no mention however of whether Valleygirl's favoured tactic of employee head stapling is an appropriate Internet policy. 

Should You Be Fired for Using the Internet While at Work?
Lines between professional and home lives start to blur....

Despite the mixing of work and personal time, employers fear the loss of salaried time from workers who are not devoting all their workplace time to, well, work.

A recent survey by Salary.com claims employers waste $759 billion per year paying for employees who are online for personal reasons. But Rainie calls this and other reports like it "junk pieces of research" because they don't account for work at home.

And a December 2002 survey conducted by the University of Maryland supports Rainie. The survey finds that workers with Internet access at home and at work used an average of 3.7 hours per week of work time for personal Internet use. But they spend more time, 5.9 hours per week, surfing for work outside office hours...

full article: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,125597,00.asp

[valleygirl]

[quote author=mandy link=topic=3441.msg13366#msg13366 date=1146566863]
PC World has a related article.  There's no mention however of whether Valleygirl's favoured tactic of employee head stapling is an appropriate Internet policy.  [/quote]