It's never a good policy to have a policy that few people follow, yet many companies are tangled in this type of Web problem. On the one hand, their policies prohibit personal use of the Internet on company time, premises, and equipment, but at the same time employees are using it for personal matters while still meeting their work objectives.
As for the upside, there are some arguments indicating that employees' personal use of the Internet is actually contributing to their productivity. For example, if an employee can take care of some grocery shopping on the Internet during his or her normal work hours, perhaps the employee will stay at work longer.
Or, perhaps there is a personal issue on which the employee needs some expert advice. Rather than stewing over the issue and letting it interfere with his or her work, a visit to an appropriate website may give the employee the answers, and then he or she can get back to work.
With employees spending long hours on the job, and many employers already taking steps to cover some of the employees' personal chores and provide more
work/personal life balance, it is evident that some rethinking of Internet policies may be in order. At this point, you should consider forming a task force of employees and managers to jointly develop an Internet usage policy that people will actually use.
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