While I agree that internet surfing at work as long as it is with some sort of restraint without affecting work performance is not necessarily a bad thing I do believe a company has every right to fire an employee if their policies are against this.
I do not agree with the comparison within the article about it being just like taking a cell phone call. While a little time "goofing off" is tolerable internet surfing is by no means the same. A cell phone is personal property of the employee while the computer is in most cases property of the company. As a company computer I feel the manager / owner has every right to make the decision as to what it is used for. If it were an employees personal laptop this would change things but in most cases this would not be.
I completely disagree with this judge's ruling, and I see more legal action coming. Our office has a T-1 connection, and every workstation is connected, and I do have to use the Internet on a regular basis for specific work purposes. However, just sitting and surfing is if not forbidden, strongly discouraged.
Offtopic but, Of course, you wouldn't know that from the behavior of the boss's daughter. She spends most of her time at the office (paid time, mind you) surfing the web, opening suspicious emails and letting loose malicious viruses, etc. That is, of course, when she's not talking on the phone to her friends and family. Some people are immune to office policy. |
Slacking online might help
If you're reading this at work in between things you should be doing, or if you like to kill time at the office by heading over to Facebook, Twitter or one of your favourite blogs, good news: that idle time - in moderation - actually makes you more productive by giving your brain a chance to reset. Here's why. Ref. Source 7
1 state worker visited 48K online games, videos
A library employee at CSU Fresno visited 48,000 webpages for online videos and games during a 13-month period, according to a State Auditor’s Office report on “improper governmental activities.” The report detailed nine other cases. Ref. Source 4h.