Forum Moderators: open
A New York City employee cannot be fired for surfing the Web from work, an administrative law judge has ruled.
In his decision, Judge John Spooner said that agencies should apply the same standard to personal Internet use as they do to other personal activities. He noted that many agencies allow employees to take personal calls, or even read the newspaper, as long as those activities do not interfere with a worker's overall performance.
Judge: Worker can't be fired for Web surfing [news.com.com]
[edited by: pmac at 3:46 pm (utc) on April 25, 2006]
[edit reason] fixed side scroll [/edit]
Absolutely amazing. I wish I could fire the judge
Why, the Judge is just statinng the truth?
Actually I read another article, where it is said that the employee was surfing on his lunch break, and not during work time.
If the employee was surfing, when he was working, yes the employee should be reprimanded, with the same penalty as taking personal calls, reading the paper, etc, during work time.
And then again, it depends on the employee. Some people around here puts in a fulls day work in a few hours, while other employee's take a week to put in a fulls day work :)
I used to own a call center allowing the staff to make calls read etc etc during work hours went down well.
They knew that if they didnt hit their targets at the end of the week bye bye. No exceptions.
The average time an employee stayed was 14 months, unheard of in that line of work, rarley did we fire them and many many new staff came to us through personal recommendations.
Be flexable but be firm.
reprimanded, with the same penalty as taking personal calls, reading the paper, etc, during work time.
Many businesses do little to combat the slow creep of unnecessary personal business into work time, and then only do something when it's become absolutely unmanageable. When I stopped working on the family farm and got my first job on my own, it was unbelievable to me how much nonsense had filtered into the workplace. I was used to putting in a full day's work. My co-workers typically were not. It was even more unbelievable how the management pretty much shrugged their shoulders at it all. The situation hasn't been much better in subsequent jobs, and it's likely to get worse as new software and electronic devices make communication easier and more portable.
There are ways to handle situations like the one from the article, as Essex_boy's example demonstrates, but most management I've encountered appears either unwilling or unable to address the issue.
It's our right to think the firing was too harsh, but it should be within the mayor's rights to do it anyway. It is his shop.
Regarding reprimanding--- like how? Do you give them a pay cut, make them stand in the corner, send a note to their mom, or what?
Regarding reprimanding--- like how? Do you give them a pay cut, make them stand in the corner, send a note to their mom, or what?
Put them in the website mangement team as the guy responsible for meeting sales targets. Sound like punishment enough?
[edited by: vincevincevince at 6:59 am (utc) on April 27, 2006]
Many businesses do little to combat the slow creep of unnecessary personal business into work time, and then only do something when it's become absolutely unmanageable.
Of course they have no problem allowing the not so slow creep on business into personal time... the last study I saw had American office workers working more hours then ever before.
It's amazing how being 15 minutes late is noticed by everyone in the office but the 15 hours over the weekend is not.
It is also amazing how a company can use 9/11 as an excuse to start giving out 3% salary increases although that year they had over 35% profit margin.
They're worried about hitting 40% this year so the boss wants to spend money... flat screens for everyone! (and 3% raises)
Dilbert is no longer funny because it's not the worst case scenario anymore.
But enough bitterness... back to writing articles... my 5 year plan to be out of corporate America has been reduced to ~2 years.
Andy
