Internet Office Abuse

printmonger

Active member
I'm sure this is opening a HUGH can of worms, but here goes...

Does your company have a written policy concerning office internet abuse?
Does your company enforce it, or does it have an unofficial "look away" policy?
If your company has enforcement in place, what is it?

Thanks,
Mark
(BTW - I did this at home...on my time!)
 
Re: Internet Office Abuse

50 lashes with a mouse! LOL

Abuse is one thing, use is a totally different animal. I give the best of both worlds. I use it while I'm at work and if I feel I've abused it, I work for free after hours. Those that search and use porn sites, I would call abusers. If the internet is taking away from productive time, then yes, it's an abuse.

All the companies I have worked for have internet policies, but not really enforced and only once in the last 5 years have I heard someone being etched out for internet abuse.

This site has offered more answers for us and has been beneficial.

I hope this helps answer a question.

Frank
 
Re: Internet Office Abuse

Interesting question Mark,

The company where I work does have policies in place but I have never seen anyone taken to task over internet usage. When I first started I was actually quite surprised at the amount of online games (scrabble, etc) being played by fellow employees!! I admit I do a small amount of personal browsing (gotta keep up with those NBA scores) but I try to keep my browsing work related when at work. Such as visits to PrintPlanet! I cant speak for anyone else but as long as I feel I'm being fair to the company I think some personal browsing has to be allowed in this day and age...

Cheers, Tony
 
Re: Internet Office Abuse

Most are subject to the No Entertainment policy where I work, No internet, No Music and No cell phones......

I can surf but it has to be work oriented...so here is OK.

Getting caught you can be sent home for the day without pay....guess its all in how bad you want to go home :)

John
 
Re: Internet Office Abuse

No music! Oh man, I could never work at a place that had a policy like that. We have an open office and if I did not stick in my headphones, I would get absolutely nothing done. I have not been blessed with the ability to tune out other people's conversations. Music actually helps me concentrate and stay focussed.
But as far as internet abuse, we have a policy that seems to work pretty well. If someone is abusing their internet privilege (or cell phone), they just became our collection agency (or sometimes envelope stuffer) for the rest of the day.
 
Re: Internet Office Abuse

Hi Mark,

where I work we have a clear policy.

all employees are allowed internet access, but it is monitored. We also use a blocking software (bloxx) where Pornsites, images sites, gambling sites etc. are blocked. Many of our production machines require internet access to allow remote assistance, troubleshooting, consumables ordering etc. so access is seen as a must.

We monitor useage on a monthly basis and any employees deemed to be abusing this privelege are taken to one side and warned - continued abuse results in withdrawal of the privelege.
 
Re: Internet Office Abuse

Have policy as well. Also I have internet content filtering in my firewall. I can block any content that is not work related. I always block any form of streaming that sucks the bandwith like YouTube, internet radio streaming, cnn video feeds etc.
 
Re: Internet Office Abuse

The best abuse I am aware of is when I worked for IWCO Direct in Minnesota a few years back, the VP of IT wrote the policy and viewing of porn could be terms of termination. Guesswho was fired for viewing porn, the VP of IT about a year after the policy went into affect. They had a admin reviewing logs and she turned him in to HR. Thought you all might get a laugh out of it.
 
Re: Internet Office Abuse

Yes this was Hard to handle, I love music...Music is a Big part of life and to not have it SUCKS let me tell you !
I wouldnt care what it was Classical....easy listening....Elevator music...Just something to break up the day !

No IPods / Headphones or even Humming !

Fun place this is...NOT but Im still employed !


John
 
Re: Internet Office Abuse

John, it's the same here. No music, itunes, ipod, or any web surfing for entertainment. Especially in production. I see office peeps use it from time to time, but it is strictly enforced in prepress. I have to be carefully neutral here since I am the manager, but my higher ups see anything that takes away from production as negative. I'm wondering if this is a trend everywhere or we are exception?
 
Re: Internet Office Abuse

We would be sent to exile island (Bindery with what seemed like no a/c in South Texas) and it would not happen again, at least for a while. The "Gator" loved to recruit extra bindery help, so this was his perfect excuse, anything that made you loose focus.
 
Re: Internet Office Abuse

In our shop, the ipod issue is one of safety. The company feels that you won't hear when you may need to and therefore might get hurt.

FMPOV, I used to like the music in my head when younger but now as a dinosaur, I prefer the peace and quiet. Prepress can be a bedlum if interuptions are continuous and some prepress are just like that. Ours is. Phone rings and e-mails coming all day long. If I come in on Sunday, I produce easily four times as much as on the Mac as on Monday thru Thursday (we have short Friday).

John W
 
Re: Internet Office Abuse

Yes I see it as what's to come everywhere !

Our Office also has full internet usage, no problem.

I know of one other local printer, that shall remain nameless....
That requires random drug testing, not only when you are hired...but periodically,No cell phones allowed in the building,
No Music and if you need something in your car you have to be escorted by your supervisor......Oh and the
best part is your pay scale is somewhere between 12 and 14 an hour MAX.....Ouch ! I couldnt live off that !

So I dont have it so bad !
 
Re: Internet Office Abuse

It's sort of winked at where I work, which ususally works if it's slow, but Internet useage can be a real PIA sometimes. Case in point: we have a job that we don't print here, though we do set it up, putting in the ads, etc.... My department's been told to put it on FTP by 5pm Friday. Well, we have to print it to PDF on a certain computer here because that's how it was set up--brilliant, no--but after I put in all the ads, etc... my coworker who's SUPPOSED to be printing the pages is not, because the second she walked in at 4pm, she sat dpwn in front of her computer (the one that is set up for this very specific job)... went onto the Internet and MySpace. Sometimes the job isn't put onto FTP until an HOUR after I have done "my part", meaning the job can be well over an hour past deadline, just because my idiot of a co-worker couldn't be bothered to turn away from her MySpace account. (Complaining to the boss won't work, she's young and attractive and all the guys including my boss seem to gravitate to her, yup, they got what they paid for, when they hired her, that's for sure.) I always tell people that a good attitude can make up for a lot of other qualities. You can't replace a good work ethic, and abusing the Internet is one way of ripping off your boss, I think so anyway.
 

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