Is the Internet misuse the beginning of becoming an internet addict?

We already talked about how the internet misused in the workplace affect companies, some options to prevent this issue at work, and also how to help the employees to avoid the danger of Internet misuse. But what about if your employees are already an internet addict? How can the employer help to break the cycle? 

In companies across the country, internet addiction among employees is a growing problem. Right now we use the internet to do the majority of our work, we spent a lot of hours on the internet. This increased usage gives people more opportunities to cyberslack during working hours. In addition, the majority of the employees have personal computers at home or even on their cellphones where they can continue their online activities increasing the risk of becoming an internet addict. As I mentioned on my other post, companies are trying to avoid to fire people for Internet misuse by educating them on this aspect. But what about if you recently discovered that one or more of your employees are victims of internet addiction? 

This article bring up some steps that we can take to intervene and break the cycle. The following suggestions will enable you to rehabilitate most internet addicted employees and keep them as valuable members of your team. 

Step one: 

-Ask internet addicted employees how they feel when finally do log off. 

-First of all they must acknowledge that a problem exist. 

-You need to find out if they are using the Internet to connect with others or to disconnect from the world. Those who realize they are online to disconnect are ready to acknowledge their problem and begin the recovery process. 

Step two: 

-Explain that you are their ally to help them connect with other employees.

-Let your employees know that you want to help and that you goal for them to overcome the addiction. 

Step three:

-Together create a plan to stop the addiction 

-Gradually reduce the hours your employee work using the internet

Step four: 

-Know when to back off

-Have some precautions so you don’t become too emotional involved. 

-Realize you are an employer or manager, not a therapist or best friend. 

Employee Internet addiction is a real problem with serious consequences. When you witness a problem in your own organization, intervention is the best process to a agreeable solution. 

Do you think internet misuse at workplace can be the beginning of becoming an internet addict? Do you agree that your employer should be involved on helping the employees overcome internet addiction?

"When Your Employee is an Internet Addict: How to Help Break the Cycle"

Mike Foster. June 19 2012

<http:www.internetmisuse.com>

Cyberslacking via Smart phones

So far we have discussed cyberslacking, whether or not it is acceptable and to what extent is okay. Carolina has described the alternatives employers can implement to help control the rising concern of cyberslacking. For my last post I wanted to discuss the use of smart phones to access the Internet during work hours. Since cell phones have come about phone usage policies have been put into place, likewise for personal use of the Internet during work hours. However, with Internet usage scrutiny at work, blocked Websites and so forth, people are turning to their smart phones to access sites such as Facebook, You Tube and Pandora to fill their need for immediate gratification or basically to fill the void that the employee may be suffering from do to lack of work.

Now the questions arises how are employers going to approach this challenge. Unless a phone is issued by the workplace I feel that it would be difficult for an employer to control what is accessed using the phone. In my opinion the employer would have to restrict the use of the cell phone, if there is not already a policy in place. With this, many additional challenges will arise, such as, employees use their cell phones for work, they need to be reached in case of emergency, etc.

As an employer or business owner, how would you approach this issue from the arguments above and others that are not listed that may arise in the workplace regarding cell phone use and its many different applications?

Help your Employees avoid the Danger of Internet Misuse

Statistics have shown that internet misuse is on the raise. As a result, more and more companies are trying hard to avoid this issue by conducting audits, creating internet usage policies and blocking certain websites.  Companies only want dedicated workers on the payroll and they can’t afford the productivity losses. I read an article where it said that firing people can be a disadvantage.  Internet misuse can cause added expenses for recruiting and training for new employees. In order to retain current employees and deter internet misuse in the organization, they are educating the employees about the inherent dangers of internet misuse and guiding them on the path of healthy internet practices. For example some suggestions are:

-Administer to every employee an Internet Addiction quiz www.netaddiction.com.
-Encourage employees to self monitor their Internet usage

-Allow your employees to attend an Internet Misuse Seminar 

-Hold monthly or Quarterly Social Functions

-Focus on training and goal settings

Do you think that involving your employees on activities that help them recognize an Internet Misuse problem would be  a better solution for the company and the employees?

Do you think the company will save money using the above methods?


"Help your Employees avoid the danger of Internet misuse"
Foster Institute. Management Articles
Sep 13,2006. June 15 2012
http://www.fosterinstitute.com/artman/publish/article_10.php

Can Internet Misuse in Workplace Increase Productivity?

Recently research has come to the surface showing that Internet in the workplace can actually increase productivity. That is personal use of the Internet in moderation. Taking a quick 15 minute break looking up a fun fact, something to do on the weekend or just plain surfing the Web it is said can encourage workers to get the job done. As I presented most of us belong to a newer generation of multi taskers. Listening to music or toggling between a few different screens actually increases our effectiveness during the work day. It also helps to ward off possible boredom when waiting on information from another department to complete your task. I also feel as if this helps to encourage innovation.

Personally, I feel when I keep myself busy and take a couple breaks here and there, especially when things like, "did I pay that bill?" pop into my head I like to have the ability to quickly put my mind at ease.

What do you think about this new research? And as a business owener how would you feel if an employee was still productive but took small breaks to cyberslack?

“Does Internet Use At Work Increase Employee Productivity?”Internet Misuse. Blogspot. April 1, 2012. May 28, 2012. <http://internetmisuses.blogspot.com/.>

WHAT IS THE BEST OPTION TO PREVENT INTERNET MISUSE?

Doing research on this topic for the class presentation I realized how costly it is for companies to deal with internet misuse in the workplace. I was shocked, I never thought it could be that expensive.

Business’ are spending thousands of dollars trying to protect their computer system and also trying to prevent internet misuse.

In my opinion the best way to prevent this problem is to block all website that might divert the concentration of the employees. Enforcing policies and internet monitoring are not enough to resolve this issue. I think that if the companies do not block the websites, employees are going to keep on using those websites no matter what.  

Do you think employees will continue to use internet at work to surf web sites such as Facebook even though they know they are not allowed at your work place? 

Internet Misuse In the Workplace

I have always had an inkling that checking my bank account balance and attempting to access Facebook or Pandora was a no-no, but after researching this topic I realized how much it really costs business owners. It's usually the printing and copying that you hear about, "a little can add up to a lot" for employers, but the costs associated with cyberslacking is astounding. For example, say you have a non-exempt worker web surfing for about an hour a day and not completing tasks during work hours. In order to complete the assignments the employee must work late or come in early resulting in overtime pay. So, as a business owner, not only have you paid that employee their regular time but now you are forced to pay time and a half to that employee that should have had ample time to complete the assigned task during business hours.

At this point is when action must be taken. Whether in the form of monitoring employees' use or blocking web sites. At my company we have a policy in our employee manual laying out the ground rules, we must acknowledge with a signature that we have read and understood the entire manual. On top of that our company utilizes software that blocks access to certain social networking sites, sites such as Pandora that if used will suck up a load of bandwidth, as well as many blogs or untrusted websites that could cause viruses to be downloaded onto our network. At my company, however, I believe this is much more a security precaution rather than a misuse issue that has brought it about.

Personally I roll with the punches, if I can't access a site or personal email I have my phone if I need the immediate access, but usually it can wait...and I should be working anyway.

What do you think about cyberslacking? We know it is a necessity in this day and age to be innovative and competitive, but if you were a business owner, knowing the few issues I brought up here and more you will learn at my team's presentation Friday, what would you do? And would you be very concerned with what your employees were viewing during work hours?