We’ve all been there. You are walking through the office rushing to a meeting, up to your eye-balls in work-stress, and as you pass through, over a colleague’s shoulder as they are looking relaxed in their chair, you see them browsing the internet for the next holiday deal. As you looked over they immediately shut the page down and you are too busy to stop and say anything. By the time you’re back in the office, the moment has gone and business has moved on.
An employee spending what should be working time browsing the internet for personal reasons is a misconduct offence which should be dealt with in accordance with your disciplinary procedure. The question is how do you prove it? Most employees are clever enough to not let you see if they are wasting time. Employers have the right to monitor employees activities in many situations at work, and this includes checking logs of websites visited. However, it needs to be done in the right way including a consideration of data protection laws, communication to the team and appropriate wording in your formal HR documentation.
For more guidance, tips and advice on misconduct in the workplace, monitoring and data protection laws, use our Live Chat and we’ll be back in touch to see how we can support you.
