Employers are fed up with staff abusing electronic resources. According to Michael Coates, managing director of UK-based Protostar Leadership Development, over the last two years, the fastest area of growth for his company’s business has been in advising organizations about how they can create better policies and procedures to avoid some of the pitfalls of their employees using the Internet. Coates and his team have developed a simple brochure which employers can customize and use to put forth basic Internet use rules which staff can easily understand. The booklet is free with registration from http://protostar-uk.com/InternetAtWork.aspx.
“The idea for the brochure is for companies to have one document, and they can edit it if they like, that they distribute and which basically lays out what should or should not be done in terms of the Internet and the organization,” said Coates. “That’s partly so that people actually learn and partly so that if a company ever has to dismiss an employee for unacceptable behavior online, that employee can’t turn around and say, ‘You never told me this was wrong.’”
Many of the points in the brochure are simple.
Even if you have permission to use the Internet at work, assume that a record is kept of how long you are online and which sites you visit. Be ready to justify either of these.
Do not send any emails that could be interpreted as bullying or harassing.
Assume that your social media postings can be viewed by anyone.
Unfortunately, Coates has found that people seem to ignore many basic rules of online etiquette or assume that somehow they will be allowed to indulge in behavior online that would never be tolerated face-to-face.
“Some people set up Facebook pages about the companies that they work for and lose their jobs as a result. When you look at it afterward, it seems so obvious that they shouldn’t have done it. Similarly, telling people that you must not bully your colleagues by email or on Facebook is so obvious, but many people do it and end up losing their jobs as a result,” he commented.
The issue is serious. At the Facebook page, “Have you been fired because of Facebook???” people detail how they were fired from their jobs because of information they posted to their personal social networking pages.
“People will say, ‘My Facebook page is private.’ How do you know that whatever is posted to your page isn’t printed out or copied by your friends?” asked Coates. “Research from Sophos found that a plastic frog which divulged minimal personal information in friend requests was accepted as a Facebook friend by 41 percent of those contacted at random. That ‘frog’ then proceeded to scoop up information from the pages of its Facebook friends. There’s also an application that for $55 keeps sending out friend requests using common names until the target accepts the request and is compromised.”
Many teenagers are already hurting their future employment opportunities before they even approach the job market. It is standard procedure now for employers to use services which search for online information about an employment candidate. Coates remarked that teenagers think it is completely inappropriate for a potential employer to look at their Facebook page or any photograph that they can find of that teenager online and use the information as part of the employment decision. In truth, there is nothing to prohibit potential employers from considering publicly available information about an individual. In an interview, candidates only reveal the best things about themselves. Employers are interested in data on the judgment and character of the person who they are considering for a job. That information could come from Facebook postings.
Once someone joins a company, Coates counseled that it’s a good idea for the new employee to inquire about the organization’s online communications policy. It is very rare for people to understand that their corporate email address belongs to the company. If a company advises employees in a hiring letter or in corporate policies that email may be monitored — then there is a legal right for them to do so. If an individual uses the company’s network, computer or telephone to communicate, then those communications are not personal. Companies are legally allowed to monitor how their networks are used and all traffic to, from and within the corporate network.
It’s essential for all companies to keep in mind that while an organization may have policies in place prohibiting employees from posting work-related information, comments or photos online, that doesn’t mean the company can control the behavior of non-employees.
“In most countries if you’re in a public place — and a business conference is a public place — then taking photographs of you is acceptable and these can be posted to social media sites,” Coates said. “In this day and age where everyone has a camera in their phone, then there is a chance that anyone, anywhere could take your photo, put it online and in seconds it could spread worldwide. In our training sessions we ask people to think when they are out in public if they would be okay with whatever they are doing being sent in a tweet for everyone to know. If not, then they should refrain from that activity.”
