Can i sack someone for excessive internet usage

Reverbe

Kat the one from 24 indeed. I find both the character and the actor fine upstanding characters.

russxiii

is it just me that thinks this guy is a scumbag?

i took my previous boss through the ringer when he did something similar to me. I had been given a mobile phone for company usage as a young apprentice and was told i was allowed 'reasonable personal usage' 'just dont take the !!!!' were two lines used by a UK manager. I had always had 20+ pounds in phone bills since i started due to me using it predominantly for personal texts/calls. admittedly i was taking the !!!!, but i'm the sort of person that if you give me something and say u can use it so much but dont take the !!!!, theres no limits until im told what the limits are...not taking the !!!! to me meant not above £40 which was what my phone contract was. I was young an naive back then.

Anyway i'd been a 1st year apprentice and not a word was said about it. Infact my manager at the time was boasting that he had the highest bill out of everyone and he'd hit £150 last month. I then got relocated rather than being made redundant because my side of the company was taking cuts. I got re-located to the main offices which was 40 miles away. From day 1 the manager took a dislike to me, personality clash really. I actually dont understand why he agreed to take me on in the first place.

anyway 7 months down the line he sacked me for theft and gross misuse of company equipment, they had/have a company fair usage policy and it outlined everything, except a limit.

I took them to court and won because he said he'd given prior warnings which he had but there were no witnesses so i simply denied this as it wasnt on paper either. These warnings were 'you need to curb your usage a bit russ your phone bills a bit high mate' extremely pally, once he thought he had enough evidence to sack me, he did. Another string to my bow was that he used the word 'theft' which by dictionary definition didnt encompass the situation at all. Up until this point i appreciate its my own coming, despite us not getting along from day 1 however the manager disliked me that much he failed to use his discretion and made himself look like a t**t because he had previously been done for excessive use of personal equipment, i.e. his company mobile. in which he racked up 3 months of £100 bills, in his first 3 months of working with this privelage. His manager explained this was unnacceptable and asked him to pay back the amounts owed. no disciplinary preceedings were followed at all. yet it was obvious he didn't like me because he dismissed me completely not even a verbal/written warning.


theres alot of other details which make me actually seem less of a t*** myself but i'v already written enough lol. i got 3 months of pay and my job back and the manager got a written warning. I left my job instantly because i'd landed a better job for double the wage. so got a further 1 months notice pay and holiday pay.

consider that last paragraph OP before making rash decisions. They had a policy and still didn't follow it. my objective point of view is if you have issues with this member of staff, outline them clearly in a FORMAL meeting and get it minuted. Make it CRYSTAL CLEAR that if she doesn't change for X,Y,Z reason then she will be facing disciplinary proceedings. However, before you do that ensure that there is both a policy for internet usage/personal usage and a disciplinary procedure and where she may find herself if it continues.

Make sure you stick to the policy though if you wish to discipline others through it.

Reverbe

russ I think you are alone here. You committed an act of gross misconduct in using the company phone so much for your own personal social life etc.. it's no different than turning up at work sozzled in fact is a form of theft/misappropriation of company funds is it not??

russxiii

Reverbe wrote: »

I'd be very concerned if I had employed a person who didnt have the common sense to know I wasnt paying her to pig about on fashion sites:eek:

common sense doesn't come into employment LAW.

ever heard the story "Garden of Eden" adam was told whatever you do dont go in there.....no reason why, just don't do it. Human nature is to enquire and to take risks.

If they'd have said dont eat the forbidden fruit because it will kill you, well there wouldnt be much of a story......but it would stop them doing it.

Same with policies, a LEGAL document that can tie you to the table if used correctly. Common sense could imply leaniency....once you do your work, you've done your work.....or am i the only one with this view? Some businesses have set amounts of work rather than continual work.

russxiii

Reverbe wrote: »

russ I think you are alone here. You committed an act of gross misconduct in using the company phone so much for your own personal social life etc.. it's no different than turning up at work sozzled in fact is a form of theft/misappropriation of company funds is it not??

Court thought otherwise. it was an act of misconduct i agree, and i got a written warning for it. It wasn't "theft" by dictionary definition and it wasn't gross misconduct as i wasn't given a chance to ammend my actions (not ones that he could prove anyway).

Alecz

So what you are saying is that despite there are 500 links in a day for the browsing history she may not have visited all these sites as they may be ads etc or the browser refreshing ?? I find that hard to believe .

Would the ad then come as a link or would it be the page which the ad is on ?

My plan is to call her in for a meeting and see if she admits to visiting these sites . if she does -- then i think i have a strong case

martinthebandit

Alecz wrote: »

So what you are saying is that despite there are 500 links in a day for the browsing history she may not have visited all these sites as they may be ads etc or the browser refreshing ?? I find that hard to believe .

Would the ad then come as a link or would it be the page which the ad is on ?

My plan is to call her in for a meeting and see if she admits to visiting these sites . if she does -- then i think i have a strong case

Just have a look around this page and see how many links to adds and things there are, wouldn't need that many pages like this to get to 500.

What you need to do is compare it to someone else doing a similar job, might give you a bit of a better guide.

scheming_gypsy

Alecz wrote: »

So what you are saying is that despite there are 500 links in a day for the browsing history she may not have visited all these sites as they may be ads etc or the browser refreshing ?? I find that hard to believe .

Would the ad then come as a link or would it be the page which the ad is on ?

the ads will come as the page because the page she's looking at has the adverts linked from another site; so that website has accessed others.
For example; if you go to Google images and search for an image you'll get x images back on that page. Each of those images will link back to it's host page, so 30 images will give 30 31 hits (google and 30 photos)

if you have her browsing report just look at the times and websites that were visited. If she's visited shopping, poker, smiley central, argos, B&Q etc within the space of 4 seconds then you know it's probably links.

Uncertain

Alecz wrote: »

I dont see why i should let her stay. Why does the employee have all teh rights .

Do you actually want advice or do you just want people to agree with you?

Given that you are asking on here you are presumably a very small business. If nothing else this thread has highlighted that you do not have proper policies and procedures. Sooner or later this will come back to bite you.

Has this person's work been satisfactory overall? You say this issue came to light by chance so you don't appear to have been investigating poor performance. Have you had cause to speak to her about poor productivity? If so, have you actually done so?

Or, are you generally unhappy with her work and seizing on what you hope is a safe way of sacking her?

Your safest option would be investigate, hold a proper disciplinary meeting and, if justified, issue a formal warning.

You then need to learn from the experience, put proper policies and procedures in place and see what happens.

russxiii

Alecz wrote: »

So what you are saying is that despite there are 500 links in a day for the browsing history she may not have visited all these sites as they may be ads etc or the browser refreshing ?? I find that hard to believe .

Would the ad then come as a link or would it be the page which the ad is on ?

My plan is to call her in for a meeting and see if she admits to visiting these sites . if she does -- then i think i have a strong case

let me put this in simple terms for you to understand, because many people have mentioned a policy and you have ignored them.

NO POLICY MEANS YOU HAVE NO LEG TO STAND ON

Your entitled to do what you want pretty much as a manager....but whether it be legal or not is another kettle of fish. If you sack this employee straight out without any warning and without having policies that have been signed BY HER, then your just going to make yourself look a complete incompetent imbercile. If she has the brains to challenge you of course.....your in a position of power and responsibility, abuse it and get found out, you won't be there much longer.