Internet Employee Danger

Employer’s Duty to Supervise Employee Surfing

The law suggests a company must investigate if it sees dangerous activities by an employee. One response is for management to avert its eyes, and hope it learns nothing that would trigger a need to investigate.

But that response is hazardous. After a calamity, proving that a company knew nothing is hard – especially if the tell-tale signs are records saved on the company’s PCs. It’s better for a company to be generally aware of what its staff are doing on their company-issued PCs. The law motivates management to watch Internet usage for both smut and other risks. . . . Continue Reading

Can Myspace and Facebook Make Employees More Productive?

PC Acceptable Use Policy in the Workplace

A place of employment is prudent to post a PC acceptable usage policy for workers. Generally, the policy should ban pornography and other repulsive or non-work activities from work equipment. It might particularly warn against loitering at places like gaming, shopping or social media sites. And it should say that non-compliance could lead to punishment. . . . Continue Reading

Computer Pornography on the Job

Employment Law

In a place of employment, computer pornography is legally toxic. In a "hostile work environment" lawsuit against an enterprise (whether a for-profit enterprise or a non-profit enterprise), the presence of porn on employee PCs or in employee electronic mail can be most prejudicial. Even though the enterprise warned against porn and maintained a formal policy against it, its existence can reflect miserably on the enterprise as a lawsuit unfolds.

In Williams v. City of Chicago computer porn backed the city’s police department into an indefensible posture. After a female employee complained about pornography in workplace computers . . . Continue Reading