“The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has counseled or disciplined 24 employees who accessed pornographic sites on government computers between 2005 and 2010 as the financial system teetered and almost collapsed” DENVER (AP) — P. Solomon Banda, Associated Press, On Tuesday March 8, 2011
“UP to 20 Virgin Blue staff have been fired for watching pornography on work computers” (June 03, 2010 – telegraph.com.au)
“District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty announced today that nine city government employees have been fired for viewing pornography on government computers while at work” (My Fox – Washington DC – January 23, 2008)
I had a chance to interact with the network technician at one of the government department. He told that watching pornography on the department computers is very common & you will find the porn clips downloaded on most of the computers & the porn websites in the browsing history.
What does this mean? Employee’s are accessing pornography on Government computers that are purchased from the money of tax payers. What a great use of our taxes? Are they being paid for watching porn? Who is responsible for making & implementing internet policies? Is there any penalty for non-work related use of government’s computers?
So many questions, but who cares for the answer, when it comes to a government department.
This not only the problem of Government departments, private firms are the similar case. Pornography isn’t the only productivity killer. Social Networking, chatting & online gaming is also the significant problem at work place.
According to a study conducted, Employees waste 20% of their total time in non-work related internet surfing.
Now just check some easy calculation:
Suppose, an average employee is paid Rs. 20,000 monthly
Cost of unproductive internet surfing:
Per month: 20% x 20,000 = 4,000 / employee
i.e if you have 25 employees you are loosing 100,000 per month & 1,200,000 per annum.
How horrible it is to admit? Other non-financial cost of this problem such as adverse impact on work culture also values.
That is why the organizations worldwide are so much cautious about the internet activities of their employees & have established clear rules about the use of internet at workplace. They are so strict in this regard that they don’t even deter to discipline & inquire their most senior staffs. IBM is the clear example, who fired its senior employee for accessing pornography at work.
But unfortunately, we haven’t yet started to think this way. Most of the organizations in Pakistan do not have internet policies at all; some has the policies that are very normal to be compromised.
Now, the most important thing, how the organizations can regain employee’s productivity & eliminate non-work related internet use.
Technology is available & fortunately it is both effective & affordable. Client-based internet filters (CBF) such as Content Protect Professional are the most powerful tools to filter the internet content. (CBF) allows you to establish the internet policies (list of allowed websites or allowed web categories). Depending on the requirement you can create separate policy for each department & even for each user. Thanks to the cloud technology, using CBF’s you can even manage your computers & view reports from any internet connection anywhere in the world
Fortunately, there are tools but unfortunately we do not use them……..
The decision is yours. Whether you allow your workforce to keep wasting time on internet or install a good internet filter that help you save million, increase productivity & improve work culture.
What do you suggest?
