By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady

In my recent column exploring off-the-job use of e-mail ("BlackBerry at the Beach"), I expressed concern that this practice will lead to overtime claims by nonexempt employees—not to mention burnout by all. 

But there's a flip side: What about employees who use their computers at work for personal stuff, especially Web surfing and e-mail? Should HR team with IT to crack down with software barriers? What policies are appropriate? How serious is the problem?

From talking with other employers, reading, and listening to comments at conferences, it is clear that many large companies-particularly in the public sector-have installed software to limit Web browsing. But most employers still seem to be relying on supervisors to manage their workforce.

How Serious Is the Problem?

At BLR, we’ve only had one or two serious situations: The most troublesome was when pornographic photos started coming out of a printer. A quick investigation led us to the guilty employee. Needless to say, termination was easy and quick. 

As an owner/employer, it is disconcerting for me to see employees spending their time unproductively-no matter what they are doing. Whether it’s personal phone calls or sports gossip at the vending machines, if it’s too blatant or frequent, it has to be addressed. On the other hand, as we have transitioned from delivering our products and marketing via print to doing it on the Internet, we are in an interesting, and probably not unique, situation: Some Web surfing can be justified as research. 

From customer service, to sales, to marketing and editing, we have benefited from having employees who know and use the Internet. They have been able to suggest better ways of doing things and critique what we are doing. All toward the goal of helping us serve customers better.

On balance, though, I don’t get too concerned about the technology. It is a new technology, but it is like any other device, product, or service that can be misused by employees. Telephones used for excessive personal calls are a problem. Making personal copies of on office copiers can be a problem. The list is endless, but in the end, it amounts to the same thing, and the solution is the same in all cases.

If supervisors and managers are good, they know how their people spend their time and whether they are meeting goals. To be effective, managers have to feel trusted, and that trust extends to allowing them to control the details.

I believe that we have to give managers policies and guidelines and then charge them with ensuring compliance. If we rely on IT and technology to solve what is really a performance problem, we’re not only interfering with supervisor’s prerogatives, we’re also absolving them from the responsibility to do their jobs.

I asked our HR staff to review this column and comment on this. One staffer said she thinks BLR has fewer problems than a prior employer, mostly because our workforce is more educated and professional. 

Where she worked before, at a manufacturer, there were greater problems. She did say, though, that it was almost always part of a greater performance problem with an employee. And she added that there are situations where IT can be very helpful.

That's my epinion; I'd love to hear yours. Is on-the-job Internet usage a serious enough problem to warrant HR and IT intervention, such as Web blocking software? Use the Share Your Comments button to tell us or e-mail me at rbrady@blr.com.  E-mailed comments may be published, so if you don’t want yours to be, or you want identifiers deleted, please let us know that.