In this portion of the blog I will discuss how to deal with internet abusers and what you can do to prevent people from abusing the internet at the workplace.
First, if you are in a leadership role, working for a company that does not allow internet misusage at the workplace, you need to make sure that you inform your employees of the internet usage policies when they are first hired. The best time for this would be during new employee training before the employee even starts with the company. Set the expectation up front. Most jobs now require a computer and access to the internet, so if you want your employees to concentrate on work, you need to put this in the internet usage policy and make sure they sign the policy saying they read the terms and conditions. If you don’t proactively inform your employees of your policies, it is much more likely that you will see misusage on a daily basis. Look at the numbers from an earlier post.
In my opinion, you need to stop misuse from happening the first time you see it. If you don’t address it immediately when you initially identify the issue, employees will continue abusing the policy throughout their employment because they think they can get away with it. Consistent enforcement of the policy is also important to ensure that people understand the consequences of inappropriate internet usage and see that the company does take the internet abuse policy seriously for all employees in all cases.
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This is very true. The best way to stop it from happening is to firstly tell them the rules up front, make sure they understand it, then enforce the consequences when necessary. Another way they could prevent misuse is by blocking certain cites from opening so that the user cannot enter the cites in the first place.
ReplyDeleteJack Williams
I think the idea of preventing internet misuse is smart because many people just try to handle this situation after it occurs. I know that my employer made me sign an entire package about internet misuse and that it went into great detail about what we were and were not allowed to post on Facebook as well as what we can do while at work. I think the idea of blocking certain websites is good because even if employees are tempted to get on a website they are unable to get on. This can be a bad idea however, because I know many public middle schools and high schools do this. This can often prevent people from being able to access websites that they may really need to be on for work purposes. Prevention should definitely be the first step of employers.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually a really big problem in the workforce. As a manager of a small business, I have noticed that when employees have been using the internet for unproductive purposes, it does more than keep them away from their tasks. It throws their train of though off even after the activity is stopped. This reduces employee focus that is needed to maintain a productive workforce.
ReplyDeleteI agree that employers from the very beginning should clearly state their expectations for their employees. I think that managers need to express what is not acceptable in the work place and hold employees accountable for such information. I have somewhat of a strong opinion on this matter because I receive bi-monthly e-mail reminders that are forwarded to everyone in the office about unacceptable behavior and internet use. I get annoyed sometimes because of this. It is about the same message every time and nothing is ever enforced,therefore my coworkers just continue with improper activities at work as if they did not know any better.
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