Good employee with bad habits …..

[spastar]

Hope some one can help me out here.

I have this employee that surfs the net all day- I want to disable the internet with out actually disabling it. I need the internet for e-mail and to run the software I use for business.

I just want to disable the surfing part…..


Any ideas ?

 

[flourdy]

Get a router, and either restrict this employee's IP or retrict access in general to certain sites - or you can blacklist other sites.

 

[spastar]

How do you blacklist sites?

 

[Keebler Elf]

Why not just speak to the employee, tell him/her that their internet usage is being monitored, and go from there?

Sounds like you're trying to avoid the issue rather than address it.

 

[flourdy]

Depends on your router - you can list specify sites, keywords or IP addresses which are blocked, or permitted...

 

[tboy]

if you're using norton protection suite you can simply password protect access to norton, then halt all surfing priveledges. That way he'd still have access to email and any apps that you have running.

Frankly, an employee that surfs all day instead of working doesn't sound like a "good" employee to me, he sounds very much like a POOR employee.

As stated, call them into your office, point blank say: I know you're spending a lot of time surfing the net instead of doing your work. A formal letter has been put into your employee record. If this happens again, you will get a second warning. If it happens a third time you will be dismissed.

I am 99% sure that unauthorized use of company equipment (in this case a pc) is a firing offence and is recognized by the Ministry of Labour. You just have to give him 2 "official" warnings before you can fire them and make sure you write that letter and put it in their file with specific dates and times when the offence occured......

 

[spastar]

Why not just speak to the employee, tell him/her that their internet usage is being monitored, and go from there?

Sounds like you're trying to avoid the issue rather than address it.

To make a long story short – I have and the next step will be a written warning. However when I do up a written warning I want to eliminate the temptation altogether.

 

[tboy]

You might be able to do it via windows control panel. I know the administrator has the ability to do all kinds of things to a user. You might be able to restrict access to the web browser.......

 

[Neverenuff$]

Fine I'll sign off Terb...

 

[Danolo]

There are some employess who do not respond to warnings.

Several years ago, I joined a large company in a management position and inherited several long term employees.

One of them had been with the company for 16 years and had, in fact, joined this company right out of high school. Over the years he had developed sloppy work habits and his previous managers were too lax or too gutless to resolve the situation.

I came to the position and started a program of retraining. I tried everything with this guy to try to get him to pull up his socks, but he was either not able, or not willing to change.

Finally, I put him through a warning system designed to either change him or terminate him. This warning system had been set up carefully by the Human Resources people of this large company and I followed it exactly.

The process ended with my firing him and having him escorted from the premises. Not a happy day for either of us.

Then, he instituted a wrongful dismissal action against the company and me. We went to court and in one day's testimony I showed the court the warning process and all the documentation.

The judge decided in the company's favour and I was finally done with the issue.

We found out later the guy had his lawyer brother bring the suit, because no other lawyer would.

He was probably hoping for a settlement.

Hiring and firing is not fun and can sometimes can be difficult, but if you document everything and take notes of conversations, you'll at least be prepared if you do have to go to court.

I think this situation is why so many jobs are now outsourced, or even set up on contracts for short term.

Its sad... I wish you well.

 

[spastar]

One of the big issues for me is, I will have a very hard time replacing him. He is for the most part a good employee- minus the internet surfing at the wrong times. If I fire him I will be back logged with work and it will ultimately hurt me financially.

 

[Keebler Elf]

I am 99% sure that unauthorized use of company equipment (in this case a pc) is a firing offence and is recognized by the Ministry of Labour. You just have to give him 2 "official" warnings before you can fire them and make sure you write that letter and put it in their file with specific dates and times when the offence occured......

This is all wrong (or rather, inaccurate).

Unauthorized use of company equipment may be just cause for dismissal. Emphasis on the may. For surfing the internet, good luck with that (unless it's kiddie porn or bestiality or something of that nature/degree).

The Ministry of Labour has nothing to do with it. Just cause is what you need to terminate an employment relationship without having to give notice (or pay in lieu of notice) and/or severance pay. Just cause has developed out of common law and is based on judicial and quasi-judicial precedent. It's common knowledge that employees can use the internet for a "reasonable" period of personal use during work hours. What is reasonable is entirely dependent on the circumstances. But I'm assuming from the limited info provided that the employee was using the internet for an unreasonable amount of time.

Progressive discipline has also developed out of common law. There is no standard rule of thumb, other than that employees should be properly informed of their duties & responsibilities, trained accordingly, and be promptly notified of inappropriate conduct. They should then be given a chance to rectify/improve their behaviour. If that does not occur, additional discipline may result up to and including termination. How quickly you pull the trigger is entirely dependent on the circumstances.

Now this part is important because the vast majority of people get it wrong... In a non-unionized environment you can terminate the employment relationship any time you want. You can wake up one morning, feel like firing somebody, and do it. The only issue is period of notice (or pay in lieu of notice) and/or severance pay entitlements. If you terminate based on one of the (specified) prohibited discriminatory grounds (sex, race, religion, disability, etc.), you're looking at a Human Rights complaint and potentially thousands of dollars in damages (not to mention years of litigation, mostly on your dime). There is no entitlement to a job under Canadian law. It's just like quitting, there's nothing that prevents you from up and quitting at any given time (unless you've signed a contract saying otherwise). Same thing for being terminated (with notice and/or severance). In a unionized setting, it's a whole different ball game.

 

[spastar]

Curious Spastar, are you at the office now? On company time? Is surfing a site like TERB considered an acceptable use of your company time and resources?

Yeah, I know, I'm doing it to.

Seriously try working with the employee. You also have "free" options to block unwanted network traffic (on the router or firewall) if you decide that's the way to go.

The difference is I can do my job while surfing the net… He can’t. My job requires me to stay at my desk- his does not…. and I'm the BOSS

 

[red]

One of the big issues for me is, I will have a very hard time replacing him. He is for the most part a good employee- minus the internet surfing at the wrong times. If I fire him I will be back logged with work and it will ultimately hurt me financially.

fire the guy sitting next to him for spending too much time on the internet. he will get the message.

 

[tboy]

Keeb:

Please indicate precisely where I was inaccurate?
Unauthorized use of company equipment is an acceptable "just cause" reason for dismissal.
Surfing the net on company time IS misuse (do some online research, there are all kinds of studies, etc highlighting the amount of time lost to this activity and reccommended dealings with employees who continue to do it).

As for "up and deciding to fire someone" you're wrong, you can't do that. Now anyone who does simply invents a reason to do it (lack of work, restructuring etc) and the last time I was at an HRDC office, they told me specifically, there is NO dismissal without cause even if they give you gobs of severance. I think the HRDC did this to help alleviate the amount of money they pay out for this reason.

Now, this was 10 yrs ago and maybe the rules have changed but I don't believe they have. In my case my seperation papers specifically said "dismissal without cause" and when I went to HRDC they put down "dismissed" and I wasn't entitled to any support (aka MONEY).

Anyhow, as stated, YES document everything......and to the OP: you have to determine if the amount of money you're spending on him while he is not working for you is greater than the money you'd lose if he wasn't working for you at all.

ie: if he surfs for 4 hrs a day, and you pay him for 8, and you pay him $25.00 per hour, you're actually paying him $50.00 per hour for the 4 hours he's actually working......

 

[Kyra.Graves]

What industry are you in? It seems irrelevant at first but to effectively manage a team you need to adjust your management style based on the employees.
As an example if you are in a knowledge based environment (eg. R&D for a tech company, a law office, etc.) then your employee has probably worked long and hard to get to where they are, knowledge workers tend to be a little more difficult to manage on a day to day basis but as a rule they require less supervision on specific tasks. With a knowledge worker it can be helpful to provide a more flexible work environment as you will find they tend to work independently and will often adjust their schedule to maximize their own output.

If you are dealing with a labour worker then you might want to approach the issue from a project managemet basis and find out what tasks have been neglected and take an acive role in those. Showing a clearer guideline on time management and providing more specific task goals should help to ensure that the time spent on the internet will not interfere with assigned work.

IMHO restricting sites should be a final step as it can foster an environment of distrust and may not only cost you one employee but several; if you restrict one you'll have to restrict them all. Rather as a manager I'd approach the issue from a team management perspective and if the employee is that valuable to the workplace find a way to make it work. Finding new and qualified employees is time consuming and very expensive, if he still gets the job done it may not be that big of an issue.

One final note, all of the great employers I've had and I've been fortunate to mentor with some of the best out there have taught me that it's important to hold yourself to a higher standard than your employees. Getting to the top is much easier than staying on top, especially in our competitive market. It's important to stay on task and demonstrate your ability to do so to each of your direct reports. This not only motivates them but also demonstrates the necessary skills and behaviours required to advance from their positions. If the employer acts one way but expects employees to act another you will find employees will resent your success and will not be motivated to contribute to it. Anyone with an equity position has a much greater motivation to stay on task and see the corporation succeed than those working below them, if they do not manage their tasks/time effectively then it's unrealistic to expect the employees too.

 

[3Tees]

Keeb:

As for "up and deciding to fire someone" you're wrong, you can't do that. Now anyone who does simply invents a reason to do it (lack of work, restructuring etc) and the last time I was at an HRDC office, they told me specifically, there is NO dismissal without cause even if they give you gobs of severance. I think the HRDC did this to help alleviate the amount of money they pay out for this reason.

Keebler is entirely correct. Every other person I know in my life is a lawyer, and I know many employment lawyers. What he says is true - a boss can wake-up and fire someone for no reason what-so-ever, as long as effective notice is given.

tBoy, what you are referring to above is the effect a dismissal has on collecting EI payments, and how HRSDC views/classifies the situation for the purpose of giving out money. This is quite different than the actual law that allows a firm to fire anyone without cause, as long as there is notice.

 

[tboy]

Yeah, my bad, thinking two arms of the same government would address a situation the same way lol......

Just for discussion purposes (not disagreeing with Keeb):

(from the ministry of labour website)

"In most cases, an employer can terminate an employee's job at any time, but employers must provide proper written notice, or termination pay instead of notice.

However, there are some situations where an employer can't terminate an employee's employment even if the employer is prepared to give proper written notice or termination pay. For example, an employer can't end someone's employment, or penalize them in any way, if any part of the reason for the termination of employment is based on the employee asking questions about the ESA or exercising a right under the ESA , such as refusing to work in excess of the daily or weekly hours of work maximums, or taking a pregnancy, parental, personal emergency, declared emergency or family medical leave. (See the "Role of the Ministry of Labour" fact sheet for more information.)"

So I wonder, what the other situations are where an employee can't be terminated even with sufficient notice? It shows those above as an example........

 

[Larry_Fyne]

The difference is I can do my job while surfing the net… He can’t. My job requires me to stay at my desk- his does not…. and I'm the BOSS

Data1960 is quite correct in his advice.

You must first of all ensure that you have some policies in place that are 1. written by HR & IT together. 2. That each employee is given a copy of the policies and that they sign them in agreement. 3. The signed copy of each employee's policy is stored in their HR records.

The policies you need to have are 1. Internet use policy - it needs to specify what is allowed and made plain that everything else is not allowed. You have to make sure that the employees are aware that you reserve the right to monitor all internet traffic (whether you have the ability to right now or not). They also need to know that email is owned by the corporation and not the individual. You should include a process whereby an employee (like yourself) can request, and with proper authorization receive access to applications and/or web sites that are banned. You should include some form of reasonability to ensure you don't get requests for things that are clearly out of wack - ie. must have a business case.

2. Hand-in-hand with an internet use policy, you need a PC use policy. It should also make plain that the equipment belongs to the corporation and not the employee. That they are not allowed to install software without approval, modify the equipment (ie. install modems) a that you reserve the right to inspect any PC at any time.

3. While you're at it, you should look at a policy regarding the security and confidentiality of corporate data. Do you allow USB thumb-drives (probably shouldn't without a policy)? What about CD/DVD burners? You need to protect your company's data assets as well as the physical assets.

Once you have developed the policies, you must create enforcement and ramifications for voilations. Having rules is no good unless you plan to enforce them. You should consult with HR with this so that you do not find yourself in a situation where you can't enforce the rules.

Of course, once you have these rules in place, you will also have to be careful about breaking them.

I am an IT consultant that has dealt with SOX audits and compliance. PM me if you would like to farm out these things to get them done right.

 

[tired old perv]

Just fire his ass, and tell him why you gave him the boot.

And hire somebohat will do the job they were hired for.