Surfing for naughty photos at work: Is suspension, demotion enough?
May 7, 2008 by Fred HosierPosted in: Employees do the strangest things, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, That's how they do it in ______
The story of a bureaucrat in Japan who was suspended and demoted for offensive surfing at work provides the public (and you lucky HR Blunders readers), an opportunity to chime in on what would constitute appropriate discipline.
Here’s the scoop: A 57-year-old Kinokawa City bureaucrat was spending up to three hours almost every work day surfing porn at work. This went on for eight months.
(We’ll do the math for you. Eight months, minus some vacation and holidays, five days a week, for 90 minutes average per day, is about 240 hours looking at naughty pictures at his desk. That’s six work weeks’ worth of wanton Web surfing.)
The city found out about his online ogling because his computer kept on picking up a particular virus, according to media reports.
The porn sites were from other countries, so they got through the city’s security net, said to one official.
His punishment: three months suspension and a demotion.
Angered citizens called city hall saying the suspension wasn’t enough.
What do you think? And what fate would employees at your company meet if they surfed porn at work?
Tags: discipline, pornography, Web surfing
May 7th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
It’s our company’s policy that if you seek it. Enjoy it. Your not likely to be employeed afterwards. Our servers track down loading porn machines, as such we can ID the abuser in seconds and arrange for a security escort off company premesies minutes later.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
An employee caught surfing the web for porn or passing porn in or within the office is immediately terminated.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
It’s not just that is an issue. We are a small company and until recently allowed our employees to use the internet for some personal items (finding furniture, paying bills etc) however one computer got a virus that was then passed to the whole company. We ended up replacing all computers! Now were are changing our policy.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Immediate Termination
May 9th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
I’d like to know how all those ‘viagra’ and ‘male bodily enhancement’ e-mails keep coming into my spam folders - I mean I’m glad they go to spam, but why did they start in the first place? I’ve NEVER inquired into that sort of thing on my PC!!!
May 9th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I think he should be terminated and his immediate boss suspended for failure to properly supervise his direct report!!!
May 9th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
To avoid any kind of wiggle room, companies should have a strict internet use policy in place that tells employees the consequences of viewing inappropriate websites. I personally think it should be grounds for immediate termination. Allowing employees to view inappropriate websites such as porn does not reflect well on the company, neither does it show appropriate use of time and productivity.
May 10th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Immediate termination. Employees are allowed to use the internet on their lunch hour and they can see and do anything except porn and “R” rated material. That they can do at home. If they are caught doing it, they are history. Our IT person has equiped our computer so that no one except the physician and management can download items.
May 12th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Major policy violation would result in disciplinary action culminating in a discussion with the employee suggesting that immediate resignation is being offered.
The alternative would be immediate termination and a reference statement if requested by a future employer that although factual may prove uncomfortable to the employee if a reason for leaving were asked. “Excessive waste of company time and miss use of company equipment.” Having the factual data would substantiate this claim.
Also you used 90 minutes and the report stated three hours or 180 minutes–Was there a reason for this or was it to error on the conservative side? I thought there were documented hard copy reports showing the time spent by this person viewing inappropriate material. Any way just an observation.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
An answer from the editor regarding Don Tomczyk’s question in his comment:
I chose 90 minutes because he surfed UP TO 3 hours a day. It was a conservative estimate on my part.
Fred Hosier, Editor, HR Blunders
July 25th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Immediate termination where I live.
August 8th, 2008 at 10:16 am
It sounds to me like his boss should’ve been terminated! I think the real problem is boredom at work; give these people more to do.