Brian Ashe Quoted in San Francisco Chronicle

The "Mind Your Business" column in the January 17 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle addresses the concern regarding an employee who spends a lot of time in personal chat rooms during the course of the business day: "One of my employees is spending a lot of time in computer chat rooms like MySpace during business hours. When approached about this behavior, she states that she does it only during her breaks and lunch periods. However, other employees say she's on the chat sites for most of the day and quickly exits when anyone approaches her desk. Another employee has had to take on extra work due to her preoccupation with chatting online. How can we stop this behavior? Is this an addiction for which she can receive counseling?"

"How should you handle this in your workplace? The first step is to make sure that you have clear written policies in place about computer and Internet use. Whether you include this in an employee handbook or as a stand-alone document, your policy should state among other things that: Computers and other electronic media belong to the company; Computer use is limited to company business. (Unless you want to allow personal use during breaks, but this can be complicated to enforce.); The company has the right to inspect all computer communications and files anytime. Have all employees read and sign the policy. You can find one example of a computer use policy at www.auditnet.org/docs/sample_internet_use_policy.htm. But check with an attorney to ensure that the policy you create is clear, legal and appropriate for your workplace. "The point is, No. 1, to tell employees that computers are the property of the employer, and No. 2, that they waive their right of privacy when they use those machines," said Brian Ashe, an employment lawyer with Seyfarth Shaw in San Francisco. ... "Do a sufficient amount of monitoring to change the behavior," Ashe said. "Then report back, 'We saw you didn't go on the Web today. Thank you -- that's appropriate behavior.' "