Can i sack someone for excessive internet usage

System

You sound like a great boss :eek:

russxiii

berbastrike wrote: »

you sound like a great boss :eek:

:d:d:d:d:d:d

Alecz

Ok thanks for all your help .


I am listening . Mine is a small company and obviously the fact that she was not working has cost me money . In this economic climate we cant afford this . As a small company for 20 years we have never had these policies but i realise that maybe we should have had them .

As a result i suppose i will reluctantly call her for a disciplinary hearing and warn her about her conduct and see if she changes and write up a policy in the interim .

Torry_Quine

Alecz wrote: »

Ok thanks for all your help .


I am listening . Mine is a small company and obviously the fact that she was not working has cost me money . In this economic climate we cant afford this . As a small company for 20 years we have never had these policies but i realise that maybe we should have had them .

As a result i suppose i will reluctantly call her for a disciplinary hearing and warn her about her conduct and see if she changes and write up a policy in the interim .

Hope that you manage to get things sorted out with her and get a policy in place to stop this happening again

Sambucus_Nigra

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??

No - he's not alone here.

Without the limits being detailed there are no limits. If you give free coffee or tea unless you say 'one cup per break, 3 breaks max a day' presumably someone could drink as much as they want because it's free....the same goes for internet/phone or anything else. It may be common sense but that's why policies are important - if it isn't specified then who is to know?

OP - if yours is a small company then even more reason to have policies and get closer to what your employees are doing. If it were me, she would get a verbal warning and her next job would be to write the policy for the internet usage - so that she was well aware of the limits being now set.

jackyann

Hammyman wrote: »

Let me see....

Because you are at work in a job where someone is paying your wages?

I can only assume that these comments about it being OK to use the internet for personal use when you are supposed to be working are from the public sector.

What!!!!!!
I have worked in the public sector all of my life, and since the advent of the internet, have, in different workplaces, been subject to a policy that says "personal internet use only before / after work; lunch breaks; or - if on flexitime - when "timed out".

When working in a setting with workers from different agencies, we were subject to the rules of a local authority. That meant that every time we health workers needed to access information on breast feeding, various drug interactions etc. we had to ring the IT department and ask for the sites to be "unblocked"!!!!!


Good luck to Alecz

Jarndyce

Or you could, of course, try and find out if there is a reason why an employee apparently spends so long on the internet (although I agree this is far from proven technically).
For example, do they have personal problems that are distracting them at work? Do they know what their job is, have enough work to do and/or are they capable of doing it properly or do they need some training? Do they just hate you and/or their job?
I suppose its too much to ask that you have any kind of appraisal/personal development procedure in place that might bring out these issues, but there may just be a more serious or different problem underlying all this.

Uncertain

Alecz wrote: »

Mine is a small company and obviously the fact that she was not working has cost me money . In this economic climate we cant afford this .

Up to a point yes.

I'm sure we have all worked with people who come in early, stay late and make a big thing about how busy they are. Sometimes they actually get far less useful work done than a quiet clock watcher!

It seems you only know of the problem because this happened on the internet and is therefore logged. Had she read a magazine for the same length of time you would have been none the wiser!

I'm not in any way excusing the behaviour you describe but the most effective long term solution is to correct your procedures and improve the management of your staff.

Bev._2

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 .

Find it hard to believe, or simply don't want to believe because you want this person gone? Genuine question.


You should be careful about making judgement on topics you don't understand.
If someone said to me xyz about computer networking & the like, i wouldn't disbelieve them just because i can't get my head around it. I'd look into it & see whether it's possible, or whether they're telling a pack of lies.


It really does sound to me like the issue here IS NOT with the employee racking up 500 hits.
The issue to me sounds like you don't really like this employee & are looking for a reason to have them gone.

I may be wrong, but all your posts are screaming this to me.

martinthebandit

Alecz wrote: »

As a result i suppose i will reluctantly call her for a disciplinary hearing and warn her about her conduct and see if she changes and write up a policy in the interim .

Glad to see that your approaching this with an open mind, in a fair and honest way.

Care to explain why you are ignoring the posts that many have made explaining some of the many ways the employee could be innocent?