November 6-12, 2003

loose canon

Surfing at Work?

by Bruce Schimmel

Here’s a question: If you’re reading this on the Web and you’re at work, do you think what you’re doing is OK?

That’s what Claire Simmers, a professor of strategic management at St. Joseph’s University’s school of business, recently asked 316 part-time M.B.A. students who also hold down jobs in industry.

So, is it OK to surf while you're on the clock? Sorta, kinda, maybe, came the bulk of students' answers -- which echoes just how confused businesses themselves are when it comes to their employees' personal Web use on company time.

The problem is, says Simmers, speaking from her office at St. Joe's, "much of the work is now 24/7, so the work has no problem impinging on people's personal life. In a lot of cases, that means you don't get to have a personal life."

That, she adds, is why workers will buy tickets, bid on eBay and pay bills online from their desks. If you do a little secret surfing, you may be in the majority. According to a recent survey by the American Management Association, more than half of the activities that workers do online are of a personal nature.

Unrestricted personal Web usage concerns many organizations that fear not only loss of productivity, but lawsuits if employees use company computers for illegal purposes. Yet, while most employers are wary of workers wasting time on the Web, Simmer believes that a little "slacking off can be good for business."

"We are not drones and machines," says Simmers. "We have, in the past, used the water cooler or smoke break so is it any different than standing in someone's office?"

Simmers says businesses should develop personnel policies that formally permit some private Web use because it's good for people's minds and that's good for business.

In a knowledge-based economy, "you want people who can contribute to the organization in a creative and intelligent way."

As yet, Simmers has been unable to conclusively prove that employer-sanctioned surfing is good for business, so she's looking for progressive companies who are willing to give it try.

"We would love to do a study to document an organization that has open and understood policies on personal Web usage [that might demonstrate] positive organizational outcomes -- a decrease in turnover, an increase in productivity and in new ideas," Simmers says.

So if you -- as an employee -- have been tagged or fired for wandering into the gray zone of cyber usage at work, please drop me an e-mail in confidence.

Because it's past time to shed some light on something millions do secretly daily, something about which employees are afraid to ask and employers are too cautious to tell.