Employee playing games at work

jonnygee2

For me it's 100% an instant dismissal. I'm shocked it's a debate.

I've gotten rid of people for much less, and I think I'm quite a forgiving/generous manager.

I guess it's your business and your call how you want to run it but I think dismissal would be the normal course of action here.

Takeaway_Addict

In all seriousness for me it really depends on your circumstances OP.

Is the member of staff normally good?
Are you looking to grow?
Is this a one off?

etc

Also just because the program may have been running the member of staff could have been working and left it on the computer

TELLIT01

If he is truly spending half his time playing games via a work computer I would have him down the road on the grounds of gross misconduct. As others have asked, but had no answer so far, how do you know he has actually been playing and not simply connected to the game. Is it possible he has only been active outside normal working hours and during breaks? Do you permit staff to use company computers to access the internet for personal use during their breaks?

shaunhouse

All application activity is logged during work hours on our network. It gives a breakdown by application usage to which the game was 53%.

He’s been with us over a year. A good employee but he was spoke to about a month ago as bad little habits were creeping in. Nothing like playing on games but it’s the first time I’ve been away from the office while he’s been with the company

nicechap

shaunhouse wrote: »

I run a small company, I’m currently on holiday for the first and only time this year and have an employee covering, getting orders out and running the day to day of the business. There is always lots to do, unlimited amounts of work.

So my shock horror, 4 days I’ve been away and employee decided it would be a good idea to start playing championship manager computer game. 50% of his time at work has been logged playing this so far!

What would you do?

Investigate properly before jumping to conclusions.

Is there a company policy about using company computers for personal entertainment - if so how does use of facebook fit with it?

Do your employees know you have remote monitoring access? Do others? Could other remote accessers be playing championship manger?

Are there any circumstances that would be allowable for such an activity? e.g. they are a single parent and needed urgent parental leave but rather than disturb you have bought their child in and are occupying them by championship manager whilst getting on with keeping the business running.

Only after finding out the facts and any mitigating factors would I take action. Which might include dismissal - but if you dismiss them before you are due to get back, will you be happy to lose some of your holiday?

Mr.Generous

Les79 wrote: »

Feel that a good manager would have sussed out the answer to this problem without having to ask on a forum! Oh well...

He's posing a question that has led to an interesting debate, My bet is he will make his own decision but is interested in opinions. This site needs interesting topics to keep it alive, we shouldn't discourage posters.

gettingtheresometime

Well my hubby's view was that his employees could do anything they liked provided that when he asked for x, y or z they'd be able to just hand it over.

If they couldn't then the shtf.

[Deleted User]

shaunhouse wrote: »

It’s incredibly serious. I’m lucky that the company is in very good shape otherwise I wouldn’t be able to see the funny side of the posters comment.

I’m leaning towards immediate dismissal if I’m honest.

Nah, no reference or detailed reference of gaming time, when needed might just be another option. It certainly has the potential to hit where it hurts whenever a reference is needed.

He could easily have been on his own phone in your time doing this, thus you would then be unable to prove. (I've worked in places where this has actually gone and when there had even been reviews from poor customers citing staff more interested in their phones then serving in these days - yes it all goes on)

The guy has done a year for you, loyalty wise. Don't be so quick to dismiss in haste.

theoretica

shaunhouse wrote: »

All application activity is logged during work hours on our network. It gives a breakdown by application usage to which the game was 53%.

Is this computing usage or time? Because my work is fairly light on computer power (words and numbers mostly) while many games or anything using the graphics card are far heavier, so 53% of computer power could be a very much smaller % of time.

jonnygee2

He could easily have been on his own phone in your time doing this, thus you would then be unable to prove

I'm a small business that shouldn't be possible.

But, if I'm my department I discovered someone was playing games on their phone for 50%, of their time I'd honestly fire them and then I'd put their manager through disciplinary too.

I find it odd everyone is suddenly very forgiving. Computer games in work time? Surely it's about as unacceptable as it gets?