Sacked for excessive internet use !!

Lifes_Grand_Plan

The people saying that the employer has been clever going for "falsifying timesheets" rather than "using internet at work" IMHO are not correct....

I am no expert, but as I understand it, they are claiming falsifying timesheets through using the internet during work time.... they can't just make this up, they have to prove your use of the internet so regardless of if they are citing falsifying timesheets or excessive internet use, its the same thing.

OP have they presented any evidence of your internet use?

LadyMissA

At my last job the net was only on before 9am and after 5pm and then also between 12-2pm when people were at lunch

You were only ever allowed to use it between 12-2pm if you were on a lunch break, however 2 girls in the team used to log on as soon as the clock hit 12pm and nothing was done to them. People complained and were told 'they are up to date' but the arguement was the company are paying us to work not surf the net and if we are meant to be a team there is plenty more work to be done. Two others in the team would sit there working and watch the other two on the net. If a manager walked by they would close the screen.

We all had to sign internet policy agreements and these 2 still carried on thinking it didn't apply to them. People from other depts started to complain about them and one day they were both hauled into the bosses office where it was put to them they were abusing the system and they both denied it till a log of the sites they had been on was shown to them. The boss wanted to sack them both there on the spot but the head of the team manged to talk her round to letting them stay where they both carried on abusing the system

If you have an internet policy or not as you are meant to be working use your common sense to work out that it is gross misconduted to be abusing the internet.

smileylondongal

starrystarry wrote: »

I don't understand why some people think using the internet for personal stuff is acceptable at work. You wouldn't sit at your desk reading a book when you were supposed to be working so why should it be ok to read the internet?

The only difference is that if you read a book it's going to be obvious to everyone around you. So you wouldn't do it, because everyone would know you were skiving. Reading the internet is the same thing, just less visible.

I completely agree with this. Unless you're undertaking a web based task or you're on a break of some kind, then this is always unacceptable, even if others are doing it. Comes back to that old 'if someone else jumps out of a window would you do the same?' - you have your own mind, never mind anyone else and what they're doing.

People do take risks and unfortunately in this case it hasn't paid off as they've gone for the OP through a more solid route. The OP can't say the others are doing the same thing as he's the one that's been caught.

Having said this, I think it is a shame that they didn't give a warning of some kind but it does make me wonder if they wanted to make an example of the OP to show others of what is acceptable and what is not.

starrystarry

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

It depends when and how you're using it though. If you're waiting for someone to come to the phone or you've a client or interviewee coming in a couple of minutes it's a completely different situation from just downing tools for half an hour in the middle of the working day.

Agreed. Although to be honest, when I do get a "spare" couple of minutes I usually end up clearing out my emails, making sure my calendar's up to date, tidying my desk etc.

SarEl

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

i wonder what would happen if you had to do unpaid overtime and spent all that time playing on the net instead of working...

Well, since I work 18 hour days most of the time I wouldn't know. But then, owning the "company" helps. I would suggest that when the OP owns the company they can make their own rules.

Sachin

They have produced a folder of printeed sheets of all the sited i have visited using google chrome. They have not looked at the amount of work i have done on these days which proves i havent falsifiied time sheets .

They have no internet policy but are now getting everyone to state their internet usage and what they understand is fair usage.


Incedintally they intially asked me to resign a month ago as they said work was drying up. if i refused i would be made reduanant and not be given a good reference . then a few weeks later they brought this on me .

KiKi

Sachin wrote: »

They have produced a folder of printeed sheets of all the sited i have visited using google chrome.

It would still be useful to understand how much time per day you were on the net for - you haven't said. A list of sites does not indicate time spent.

They have not looked at the amount of work i have done on these days which proves i havent falsifiied time sheets.

Again, quantity of work does not indicate time worked.

Incedintally they intially asked me to resign a month ago as they said work was drying up. if i refused i would be made reduanant and not be given a good reference . then a few weeks later they brought this on me .

I don't mean to sound rude, but this is the sort of information that's useful to tell people upfront when asking about an unfair dismissal case, rather than adding it in later. You asked for help, and there have been nearly three pages of posts to help understand whether or not there's an issue - and you only raise these rather important factors now?

If you want good 'advice' then you need to tell us truthfully how long you were on the sites for. You need to explain the *exact* reason given for your dismissal - what was quoted to you in the explanation after the disciplinary hearing? Word for word, not your interpretation (internet usage? Falsifying timesheets? Conduct? Something else?). And you need to give us any other facts which may inform the way you have been treated, such as your defence at the disciplinary and any other issues like the ones you've only just revealed.

KiKi

scheming_gypsy

KiKi wrote: »

It would still be useful to understand how much time per day you were on the net for - you haven't said. A list of sites does not indicate time spent.

would also need to know how their filter works; whether it's active time or 'connected' time. You can be presented with a report that says you were online for 5 hours whereas your active time could have been 3 minutes.




Folders of information also give false information as the web filter / proxy server will list all sites visited even when you haven't visited them. If you go to ten web pages and each page has 10 adverts on, then each advert will have a URL to its site; so after visiting 10 pages with 10 adverts on will have 100 URL's on your report.
Then if you go to Google images and go through 10 pages of images, each with 50 images on each page that's another 500 entries.

LadyMissA

QUOTE=Sachin;45591212]They have produced a folder of printeed sheets of all the sited i have visited using google chrome. They have not looked at the amount of work i have done on these days which proves i havent falsifiied time sheets .

They have no internet policy but are now getting everyone to state their internet usage and what they understand is fair usage.


Incedintally they intially asked me to resign a month ago as they said work was drying up. if i refused i would be made reduanant and not be given a good reference . then a few weeks later they brought this on me .[/QUOTE]

so you have it in writing they asked you to resign? They can't threaten you no matter what you have done. And it is against the law to give a bad reference you would have prob just got one.

I think they have it in for you so unless you want to take it further you need to put it down to experience and get on and find another job.

dickydonkin

I am not suggesting that this is the case here, but how many times on this board has the word 'Facebook' and 'Disciplinary' been mentioned on the same thread?

In these days when employers are just looking for an economic way to downsize - the likes of Facebook must have saved employers thousands over the years!

Some people just never learn.