Business Ethics....

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jjasghar

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Feb 20, 2007
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Location
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I'm a net admin. Part of my job is to play voyeur on the network and report "unauthorized web surfing." I know if i do people loose their jobs. I feel horrible about it but at the same time being it's my job i have to do it. Not to mention i'm a very isolated person so i dont have any real friends who are coworkers so this obviously doesnt give me any point to talk to people. It's really starting to get to me...

Simple question, would you report these things? Hard answer, why? :confused:

(btw, i am mainly because i've been brought up to believe that work is work and life out side of work is not you at work.)
 
jjasghar said:
I'm a net admin. Part of my job is to play voyeur on the network and report "unauthorized web surfing." I know if i do people loose their jobs. I feel horrible about it but at the same time being it's my job i have to do it. Not to mention i'm a very isolated person so i dont have any real friends who are coworkers so this obviously doesnt give me any point to talk to people. It's really starting to get to me...

Simple question, would you report these things? Hard answer, why? :confused:

(btw, i am mainly because i've been brought up to believe that work is work and life out side of work is not you at work.)

They gave you a job, you accepted it. If you're conflicted about it, ask for new duties. Otherwise, what you're doing is just as bad as "unauthorized web surfing".
 
Absolutely, its your job. Its not your fault people choose to do other things and not work. Put your self in the shoes of the owner, you doing your job saves them money.
 
First, I would not agree with this policy in the first place. I do a lot of personal web surfing at work, during down time. But at the same time I do (more) job surfing at home. It might be a different story for people that are not paid flat/salary.

But, I also believe in doing my job. So if my job is to report it, I would report it, but not without objections.
 
thats a toughie but i suppose its what you signed up for, surely the don't give somebody the sack though for one transgression (unless of course they were looking up pornie etc) by highlighting what they are doing surely the company will pull them up and warn them on their behaviour, so if the continue to break the rules its their own fault.

On another point 'business ethics' i thought you could be ethical or in business but not both at the same time :D
 
What I want to know is if there are any workarounds that would let people surf without you being able to see.

Post that info and we might see an increase in daytime postings :)
 
I cant imagine what work was like before the internet. did you just sit at your desk and stare at the wall or something?
 
The bottom line is that when people who are supposed to be working are web surfing instead they are stealing time from the company! I know this may ruffle some feathers, but it can't be disputed if people are being intellectually honest.

Would you feel the same distress if it was your responsibility to report people that you witnessed stealing merchandise? There is absolutely no difference! You're not at work now asking us this are you? :D
 
There are legal ramifications for things they look at/do on their company computer as well. Not doing your job and failing to report that behavior could cost everyone in the company as a result. I'm in the same boat as you so I know your pain. But it's definitely for the greater good.

I've personally gotten a few people fired because of reporting mis-use. Sure I felt terrible about it; I even lost some sleep over it. But in the end I was just doing my job as defined by my contract and the policies of the company.

As was mentioned if you don't feel you can manage the ethical dilemma you should talk to your manager about switching off that particular task with another admin.
 
Like I've heard over the years...don't like your job description? Then you weren't made for the job.

On the other hand, do you have the flexibility to choose levels of severity (acting as a censor) and "nab" the worse offenders or have a blanket order to nab everyone, regardless of position?

If you don't "find" anyone breaking the rules that's one thing. If you do know of offenders, that's another. (At present, I am an offender...)
 
Chimone said:
I cant imagine what work was like before the internet. did you just sit at your desk and stare at the wall or something?

People drank on the job.

Wait a second....


...Stupid internetz.
 
Monitoring others tracks on the 'net is a waste of your time. I got no idea the tool(s) your company is using but what they should be investing in is systems that block access to sites that are known to get the company in trouble like porn, hate and gambling; not focusing in on who's being non-productive based on their web surfing tracks & habits. That's the slack arsed employees boss' job. Or do you monitor web cams setup in the kitchen/break rooms and bathrooms too. Does depend on the employee base. Hourly is a different makeup than salary of course but I hate the BS that technology should try and measure someones productivity unless its a call center.

Even though I have the ability, I don't review someone's actions online unless HR initiates it nor do I want to. Lawsuits and all with fortune 500 companies.
 
We're supposed to do WHAT all day?
Seriously... I do a lot of telesales and sitting here calling customers is not exactly taking 100% of my time... so as i call (call = WORK) i surf... I can do two things at once!
 
Use it as a tool to blackmail people. Seems like the most ethical thing.
 
I think what you ned to do is depersonalize it for yourself.

Generate data from whatever tool you are using to manage the traffic leaving the building and let whoever is actually going to be doing the firing take care of the problem children (as they see it).


There are lots of affordable, effective tools for managing people's access to the internet and logging what behaviors they do have. If your company isn't using a good one then you need to spend some time on a business jusification to implemment it.
 
Craig5_12 said:
hmmm.....you don't work for Bank of America do you? Okay....good....neither do I.....

Well I do.:D and we're blocked from some pretty harmless sites. Also, they don't block all sites that will get you in trouble.
 
I would love that job. People are told when they get internet access at work that it is for business purposes and anything you do can be monitored. Just visiting a seemingly harmless website can wreak havoc on a computer network. It's not like they don't know what they're doing is wrong. I used to be on this site everyday at Capital One but it was a calculated risk with potential for disaster.
Do you have to report everyone or just the morons looking at porn?
 
2nd Street Brewery said:
Well I do.:D and we're blocked from some pretty harmless sites. Also, they don't block all sites that will get you in trouble.

We're blocked from some very odd things, like I couldn't get to the Indianapolis Star newpaper's site (I think they lifted that ban, though). Myspace is out, the chat room here is blocked, some weird things (like that baseball game rdwj posted the other day) are labeled "gambling" and blocked. Some clean sites get blocked as "porn" or "drugs," which always makes me nervous.

I'm here a lot during the day, but the work gets done. If I'm stealing from the company by spending some time clearing my head here, then they're stealing from me when I'm thinking about work at 9:00PM or here on the weekends.
 
the_bird said:
If I'm stealing from the company by spending some time clearing my head here, then they're stealing from me when I'm thinking about work at 9:00PM or here on the weekends.

Bingo...

321
 
If surfing during downtime is such a serious transgression, I deserve to be canned as much as anybody else here. I keep reporting myself to myself, but I can't seem to get myself to do anything about it. It's good to be the admin sometimes.
 
todd_k said:
Do you have to report everyone or just the morons looking at porn?

Actually it's basicly anything that, well i want to report. It's a hug sense of power, but i guess i'm edging into the "it's lonely at the top."

i've started writing some perl scripts to parse out the data to email it to the respected managers, so i guess i am depersonalizing it.

all in all, i was curious to see how yall would chime in thanks for the answers!
 
if you caught someone surfing this site all day, would you report them?I mean it IS your job right?
 
A case that mighthave some bearing on your job (i can't see him winning though)

BBC News, New York


The internet provided psychological comfort, Mr Pacenza says.
A man in the US is suing IBM for $5m in a wrongful dismissal case after he was fired for visiting adult internet chat rooms while at work.

James Pacenza, 58, says he was addicted to online chat rooms and that IBM should have offered him sympathy and treatment instead of firing him.

The Vietnam War veteran says he has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder since 1969.

He argues that he used the internet to control his psychological problems.

'Self-medicating'

Mr Pacenza says that seeing his best friend killed in action while they were on patrol in Vietnam in 1969 brought on his post-traumatic stress disorder.

He says that his psychological problems have left him addicted to sex, especially adult internet chat rooms.

When a fellow employee at IBM told managers that Mr Pacenza was visiting such sites while at work, he was fired.

The stated reason was that he visited an internet chat site for a sexual experience after he had previously been warned.

James Pacenza's lawyers will argue in court that their client was using the internet to self-medicate as a way of controlling his post traumatic stress disorder.

They will also argue that Mr Pacenza's claimed addiction to adult internet sites should be treated in the same way as other employees' addictions to drugs or alcohol.

The case has potential implications for employers across America and their attitude towards regulating how their employees use workplace computers.
 
WHat about sending out an email to the offenders letting them know that their surfing habits are not only monitored but against policy and that continued use will result in management action. Kind of an e-slap on thw wrist or a verbal warning instead of a ticket.

-Todd
 
I disagree with the majority here. In fact, I bet you half of the people here post during work hours.

In my opinion, if you go to work on time, be productive, and do your job there should be no problem. I surf at work, but I'm also a very productive worker. I handle so many various duties for my job and work all day. I'll check the news between tasks sometimes or look up something, but that doesn't stop my productivity. Sure I guess according to the companies guidelines it's a no no and technically you could have done other work in that time frame.... but if you can keep on par with everyone else (or be more productive) I personally see nothing wrong with it.

Now obviously there is a line that can be crossed. There are those who abuse the heck out of it and should be fired. But if you can do your job and not get behind, what's the big deal? Also, what's the difference between smokers smoking 4-5 cigarettes a day at 3-7 minutes each than a guy googling something in between tasks?

Also, if companies really cared about this policy, they would block every site on the internet except the onles relevant to their jobs needs.
 
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