Employers OK with e-surfing

Computerworld - We've all done it. You sit down to lunch at your desk, click on the Internet icon and surf over to your favorite retail site, where you place an order for the Pokemon figures your son wants for Christmas. No harm done, right?
Believe it or not, that's what most companies said in a recent survey. Despite the rash of horror stories about how much personal Internet use is costing companies in lost productivity, those surveyed and others interviewed by Computerworld said they just aren't very concerned about it.
Instead, they're publishing flexible policies on how computer assets can and should be used during work hours. And for the most part, the policies seem to be working.
In a recent survey conducted by the Santa Clara, Calif.-based Saratoga Institute, only 4.5% of the 244 companies that responded said they were "extremely concerned" about employees surfing the Net for personal reasons. Some 15.2% said they weren't at all concerned, and about 50% said they were "somewhat or more concerned."
"Everyone is aware of [the issue of Web-shopping at work], but very few companies are doing anything about it," said Michael Kelly, the study's author. "The legal scouts have not sent back much useful information on the right to privacy."
The Medstat Group Inc. in Ann Arbor, Mich., is one company that has never had productivity problems among its 700 employees as a result of Internet use, said Michael J. Karaman, vice president and chief technology officer for product development.
"At the same time, we recognize and tolerate a small amount of personal use," Karaman said. "This flexibility has become more important as the workday extends beyond the workplace and into the home."
At minimum, Kelly advocates that organizations whose employees have Internet access create acceptable-use policies, and many said they have already done so.
Of the companies surveyed by the Saratoga Institute, 82.6% said they have a written Internet use policy, and 62.9% said they include it in their employee handbooks.
One such company is Las Vegas-based law firm Barker, Brown, Busby, Chrisman & Thomas PC. Jeremy Brummett, who manages the firm's IT systems, said he published an acceptable-use policy primarily because of liability concerns.
"We didn't want to find out down the road that there was reason to have [a policy] when we didn't," said Brummett. Employees must sign the policy, which says they agree not to visit objectionable Internet sites or use company e-mail assets to send objectionable or harassing information, he said.
Joy Harris, a spokeswoman for Eden