Human Resource Blog

Rhode Island Internet Gambling and Porn

As an employer in

Rhode Island, should I worry about gambling and pornography on the work computers?

Many employers say it’s a serious concern.

A recent survey showed 6% of office workers admitted to surfing for porn on their company computers during company time. More men than women admitted to the behavior, with 10% of men and 1% of women saying they accessed pornography on the job, according to that MSN-Zogby survey.

Establishing a strong policy may be the first line of defense. You may wish to declare porn surfing and gambling on the job as “gross misconduct,” justifying immediate firing.

Workers who gamble online and surf triple-X sites on the job are posing problems for employers, not only in Rhode Island but also across the nation.

Consider the employee who spends four hours out of every eight playing poker or perusing porn online. You may not be able to prove which employee used the computer for those purposes. But you can address the matter as a performance or productivity issue.

Productivity is not the only issue, however. If an employee sees pornographic images on a colleague’s computer, especially on an ongoing basis, that may constitute sexual discrimination or the creation of a “hostile work environment.” He or she may decide to file a complaint with the EEOC. The complainant does not have to be a member of the protected group to file that complaint. And such complaints need not be filed immediately after being exposed to the offending content. Office workers may frequently be exposed to the contents of a co-worker’s computer.

Workers also admitted in the survey that they may pay their own bills on company time. They may take personal calls in meetings. And they may even conduct a job-search online during company time. But most employers consider online gambling and access to pornography more of a problem.

It is easy for an employer to check a computer’s recent Internet history, but it is also easy for a worker to erase his surfing tracks. Employers may install software that blocks certain sites. But they are not foolproof, and they may actually block useful websites.