80 dismissed over inappropriate internet use

[FiveFreshFish]

What's your work policy on internet usage? Better make sure you know because these guys didn't and they were let go.



About 80 workers at the Bruce Power nuclear plant were dismissed this week for "inappropriate" use of their computers – a warning to employees everywhere that if you use company computers for personal business or entertainment, the boss may be watching.

Spokesman Ross Lamont said the workers, following an internal investigation, were determined to have violated the company's code of conduct as it pertains to email and Internet use.

Full story:
http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/694114

[Ice712]

Is Beyond "inappropriate"?

[Alterac]

Most work aup's (acceptable use policy's) forbid anything except essential work related activity.

Most will cover all this:

Listen to a music stream, Fired.
Open a nudie pic, fired.
Read the news, fired.
Install weathereye, fired.

Although they are never really enforced except for the illegal activity and for 18+ activity.

[Boat]

It seems like the company was just looking for a reason to knock off some employees from the payroll, which is completely reasonable with the state of the economy. I should be more careful :eek:

[heavyD]

Originally posted by Boat
It seems like the company was just looking for a reason to knock off some employees from the payroll, which is completely reasonable with the state of the economy. I should be more careful :eek:

Yep. It can be used as an easy way to reduce headcount and rid themselves of long time employees without having to provide expensive packages.

[masoncgy]

People seriously DO waste a ton of time on non-work related crap... I used to manage a 300 seat call centre, and the abuse was ridiculous.

Of course, you tighten down on the access and everyone complains about how bad of a place it is to work... because you know, people should be paid to do nothing all day.

I'm glad I'm self-employed now... I do it my way and need not worry about the parasites & related ills of office life.

[Xtrema]

This is news? I've been doing this like forever.

If managers want someone fired and can't come up with a good excuse, surf log is the first thing to be reviewed.

[D'z Nutz]

When your network admins come to your computer and go to www.playboy.com to check connectivity is okay, you know you're in the clear :D

[JAYMEZ]

Hmmm my work is Porn.. I dont think I can get fired for "inappropriate lol" ..:clap:

But on a side note.. Just looks like they needed an excuse to fire 80 people... I would see maybe 1-2 people getting fired under the internet thing.. But 80, ya right.

[D'z Nutz]

Originally posted by JAYMEZ
Hmmm my work is Porn.. I dont think I can get fired for "inappropriate lol" ..:clap:

Haha maybe if they see you're not looking at enough porn, they'll think you're slacking off :rofl:

[Thaco]

yeah, it's just a cop out... and it's legit, so they have no recourse.

[Weapon_R]

You don't even need to give anyone an excuse to fire them

[beyond_ban]

Originally posted by Weapon_R
You don't even need to give anyone an excuse to fire them

True, but if you have no justifiable cause your company then has to compensate the fired worker.

[max_boost]

Do as I say, not as I do.

:D

[01RedDX]

.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by beyond_ban


True, but if you have no justifiable cause your company then has to compensate the fired worker.

This. It's cheaper to fire with violation than laid off with economic reasons.

[masoncgy]

Originally posted by Weapon_R
You don't even need to give anyone an excuse to fire them

This is only true if the employee is under probation.

[Jlude]

A huge email went out at my office bout 6 months ago because somebody was downloading every season of family guy on his work pc.

[5hift]

-"You walk through any of the offices where the engineers and everybody are, they're just sitting there, half the time they're watching Family Guy on the Internet."

sounds like they had it coming

[KrisYYC]

The policy I have for my staff is this:

As long as they get their work done, I don't care if they surf the web. Obviously no porn, and no program installs etc. But I do let them do things like buy stuff on e-bay etc. As long as it's not risky to the computers and they have their tasks completed.

I find it much easier to retain good staff with a more relaxed laid back atmosphere.

[masoncgy]

^ That works when you have fairly tight control over your team... sadly, mine was so large that sweeping changes had to be undertaken to keep the abuse under control...

We seriously had staff who did nothing but surf all day... and then had the nerve to get all upset when they were called out for it... or fired entirely.

[speedog]

No internet access at the shop we own so it's not a problem. Last place I worked at for 26.5 years, I saw lots of abuse of internet access. I guess the defining factor in the Bruce Power nuclear plant situation was the "inappropriate" use of their computers - common sense has to kick in here at some point. Surfing to porn sites, downloading music/movies, doing your personal banking at work - probably all inappropriate at any workplace where there's internet access. The way I looked at it when I was an employee, did I want to risk my career for a few mp3's/movies or some time spent paying some personal bills?

[KrisYYC]

Originally posted by masoncgy
^ That works when you have fairly tight control over your team... sadly, mine was so large that sweeping changes had to be undertaken to keep the abuse under control...


Yeah I can totally understand your situation. Mine is pretty easy considering I only have 5 staff.


Originally posted by masoncgy
We seriously had staff who did nothing but surf all day... and then had the nerve to get all upset when they were called out for it... or fired entirely.

Were they mostly younger staff that would get upset? I've seen it many times before in other companies I've worked for. Know it all college kids who think being denied access to facebook or their iphone is some kind of human rights violation.

[masoncgy]

Originally posted by KrisYYC
Were they mostly younger staff that would get upset? I've seen it many times before in other companies I've worked for. Know it all college kids who think being denied access to facebook or their iphone is some kind of human rights violation.

It was a mix, but definitely the most vocal individuals were of the younger variety.

My exact words, "Do you seriously believe that in hiring you to work here, our intention was to have you do nothing all day?"

[TorqueDog]

We have a lot of leeway at our organization - as long as things are working properly and everyone (our clients) is happy, we don't get our knuckles slapped for being on the interwebs.

[finboy]

Originally posted by TorqueDog
We have a lot of leeway at our organization - as long as things are working properly and everyone (our clients) is happy, we don't get our knuckles slapped for being on the interwebs.

a good policy, as more and more people from the internet generation enter the workforce, employers will have to adapt to the idea of people being in constant contact of all aspects of their life through the internet. i could see more people shifting to i-phone based internet to avoid having their surfing tracked.

[speedog]

Originally posted by finboy
i could see more people shifting to i-phone based internet to avoid having their surfing tracked. So what if companies start putting in cell phone blocking devices at the workplace - low power ones? Would that be a violation of those employee's rights?

As most companies have a code of conduct policy in place that all new hires must agree to that most often includes rules/guidelines regarding telephone/communication and internet access/use, shouldn't that company's possibly censored/filtered internet access and the usually wired phone on their desk/cubicle be enough? Please note that I'm not advocating the use of cellphone blockers, but it is a reality in today's world and I wouldn't put it beyond large corporations to deploy such devices in the workplace in order to more tightly control their employees in a misguided attempt to increase employee productivity. Also of note, I'm not even sure about the legality of cell phone blockeing devices in Canada, but they are out there.

[eblend]

I am the IT staff, what now? hahaha :D

But in all reality, I work for a government organization and the feel is pretty relaxes, I do a million things at work and when there is nothing to do I browse the internet which has no site restirctions at all. I see that as long as the job is done then it is fine. The way they describe our positions is as a firefighter, just sit back and relax until shit hits the fan (like a core switch failure ect :nut: )

[TorqueDog]

Originally posted by eblend
I am the IT staff, what now? hahaha :D :werd:

[Alterac]

Originally posted by eblend
I am the IT staff, what now? hahaha :D

But in all reality, I work for a government organization and the feel is pretty relaxes, I do a million things at work and when there is nothing to do I browse the internet which has no site restirctions at all. I see that as long as the job is done then it is fine. The way they describe our positions is as a firefighter, just sit back and relax until shit hits the fan (like a core switch failure ect :nut: )

What kinda core are you guys running?

We have Nortel 2x 8310 chasis... hah. Nortel. I think we are fine tho.

[Supa Dexta]

How many of you replied to this thread from work?

;)

[TomcoPDR]

Originally posted by JAYMEZ
Hmmm my work is Porn.. I dont think I can get fired for "inappropriate lol" ..:clap:

But on a side note.. Just looks like they needed an excuse to fire 80 people... I would see maybe 1-2 people getting fired under the internet thing.. But 80, ya right.

Best job ever. Has anyone try scanning the entire office with those CSI black lights? :barf:

[Vagabond142]

One thing that worried me about that article is people bringing in memory sticks and sharing stuff off them. When I did contract work for Encana over the winter, before their big split was put on hold, we were given a little lecture on things that would get us immediately released. It was all listed under the "no tolerance, you're a tech worker so you know better" clause. USB sticks were the first things mentioned: "Leave them at home or in your bags. You have a USB stick on you that is not company issued or an RSA key, you're gone"

Bringing in a memory stick is HUGELY dangerous. It's actually one of the more common ways to hack or at least penetrate the first level of corporate security. There was a case a few years back where a group of blackhat hackers went to a company parking lot, randomly dropped 5 or so USB sticks around on the ground with rootkits on them. People from the company picked em up, took em in to work with them and plugged them into the corporate computers to see if there was anything on them to help them get them back to their owners. Bam, rootkit in, spreads worm and tunneling software like wildfire, and at the end of the day their mainframes were accessed and designs, payroll info, all of that, stolen. All from a USB key someone innocently plugged into their computer.

Fairly be ye warned.

[SCHIDER23]

Originally posted by Supa Dexta
How many of you replied to this thread from work?

;)

:thumbsup:

[ianmcc]

I don't have internet access from work except for the company website. Everyone I know at work in my situation will e-mail personal pictures to themselves for screensavers and backgrounds-I used a screenshot of a Pokerstars table as my screensaver. We all got warned about storing personal information on the company server, perhaps a precursor to similar layoffs. In the current economy, you don't need to be giving them a reason to let you go.

[Beerking]

LOL, reminds me of when my IT guy logged onto my work PC from his home office while I was surfing 780tuners or beyond, can't remember. All of a sudden my mouse was out of control clicking things "I was like WTF, errrr".

Then he popped up notepad and say "Oh hai, just checking on that outlook incoming message problem you're having".

They're always watching.....:(

[snoop101]

Most companies I have worked for including the one im at now block the stuff they dont want you to see. Gaming, daing, streaming sites. So my view is if I can view then theres nothing wrong with it.

On a side note I work much better and I work longer hours when I feel I dont have someone looking over my shoulder.

[adam c]

Originally posted by Beerking
LOL, reminds me of when my IT guy logged onto my work PC from his home office while I was surfing 780tuners or beyond, can't remember. All of a sudden my mouse was out of control clicking things "I was like WTF, errrr".

Then he popped up notepad and say "Oh hai, just checking on that outlook incoming message problem you're having".

They're always watching.....:(

yes we are

[jdmXSI]

Originally posted by 01RedDX


Exactly, another popular tactic is invoking the drug and alcohol policy for random testing - as long as you have a bit in your system from a weekend party or something they have the right to let you go.

They can't do anything if you have alcohol in your system as long as it's trace amounts, can they?

Haha Internet is restricted at my work, I even got a block on cars.com when I was trying to do some research on a car... The kicker is, I work at a car dealership:s lol

+1 for replying at work on the iPhone:D