Cyberslacking definition: “Wasting time, usually at work, using email and the internet.”

The last few years have seen businesses make internet and email access available to all employees. After all, they are invaluable research and communication tools.

But can your trust your employees to use these resources is a responsible way? The results of countless surveys and anecdotal evidence suggests not.

The lure of downloading and playing games, online shopping, habitually forwarding large email attachments and jokes, and chatting online with friends to plan hectic social lives seems to be just too tempting for some.

And this is despite intense media focus on a number of high-profile cases in recent years. 

Who can forget when ex-No 10 media chief Alastair Campbell came under fire after accidentally sending an abusive email to a BBC journalist?

And one of the most widely publicised, and embarrassing cases, was in 2000 when London law firm employee Claire Swire described a sex act in an email to a colleague. It is estimated that her personal message was read by some 10 million strangers worldwide.

But it’s not just the high-profile cases – it could be happening in your company, under your nose.

While over 31% of adults think that sending personal email at work puts them in danger of suffering from ‘the Claire Swires effect’, according to a recent Yahoo! UK poll, further research shows that this doesn’t stop them composing and sending personal emails!

At least 35% of all corporate email sent and received in the UK is non work-related, according to email management firm Waterford Technologies.

This is a problem a North East financial services firm recently faced. The managing director, who wishes to remain anonymous, explained: “We discovered that four employees were not only using the email system to indulge in idle gossip, they were actually discussing one particular colleague in an abusive manner.

“Sadly it resulted in dismissal for the chief culprit while the remainder were disciplined.”

The company has now moved on, but the repercussions are weighty. “We had to completely revise our IT policies and we now police work emails accordingly.”

And it’s not necessarily salacious or illegal activities that employees participate in. Research shows that over nine in 10 employees use work email to organise their social life and send jokes.

Forensic email archiving and compliance company Cryoserver surveyed a selection of UK employees; the results make for unsettling reading.
 
The survey reveals that over half of employees use work email for a number of things besides work, discussing everything from news and current affairs to their social life during office hours.  

Top non-work related uses include:

• Organising social life, weekend plans and holidays.
• Sending jokes and humorous emails.
• Discussing relationships and love life or other personal issues.
• Discussing and gossiping about colleagues.
• Discussing news and current affairs.

It is clear that employers can't afford to be blasé and are best advised to adopt a more watchful attitude over emails sent using their network.

While few firms are unreasonable enough to suggest employees shouldn't use email or internet for personal use at any time, it may be time to heed recent advice issued by business information consultancy Croner to take a "Big Brother attitude" when monitoring employee e-mail use in this age of digital delinquency.

However, monitoring email and internet usage can raise difficult legal issues and any surveillance activities that are undertaken will need to comply with current data protection and other privacy laws warns Gill Hunter, head of the Intellectual Property and Technology Unit at commercial law firm Robert Muckle LLP .

“Legal advice should always be sought before formulating a monitoring policy,” explains Gill Hunter, “and a great deal of legislation needs to be taken into account when deciding how to monitor employees' activities online.”

Gill Hunter continues: “It is clear that the less intrusive the monitoring the more likely that it is that it will be justifiable from a legal point of view.

"Businesses must therefore balance their requirements against those of their employees who in many circumstances, particularly where personal email is concerned, have a reasonable expectation of privacy."

But internet-based email is also a risk. Network security provider SmoothWall conducted a survey and found that 61% of respondents use personal email such as Hotmail and Yahoo at work, and 41% use instant messaging applications such as Microsoft Messenger.

The problem is not exclusive to emails; it is also evident that internet abuse has swiftly become a major headache for UK firms.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Information Security Breaches Survey 2006, managed by PricewaterhouseCoopers, found that 17% of UK businesses suffer staff misuse of web access.

In a fact sheet, ‘E-mail and web usage’ PricewaterhouseCoopers reveals that 41% of the worst incidents involved staff accessing inappropriate websites.

A further 36% relate to excessive web surfing.

But it can be an easy path to follow as one North East worker confesses. “Having had internet access for the better part of 12 years at home, my problems began when my job required me to use the internet for various reasons.

“Over the space of six weeks, my personal internet use at work went from acceptable, about 10 minutes per day, to the unacceptable – where websites I was using or participating in personally were open on my PC all day, every day. 

“That’s not to say that I did no work, but my ability to carry out my job thoroughly and properly was quickly impaired.

“As my poor performance was picked up on by management, my morale crashed. Motivating myself to do the job I’d enjoyed for years was suddenly the most difficult task I had ever faced.

“Luckily, my managers realised the situation and took swift action at that point. 

“I did keep my job, but I lost all internet privileges; retrospectively, it was the best and potentially the only thing that could be done if I was to stay with the company.”

But this may be the exception to the rule; PricewaterhouseCoopers warns that three-fifths of businesses do not block access to inappropriate websites and only one in six scans outgoing email for inappropriate content.

These abuses have potential to cause great damage to your business and it is vital that you take proactive steps to reduce the scope of abuse.

The first and most important step when stopping inappropriate use is to define it. Create and publish an Acceptable Use Policy modelled, for example, on guidelines from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Policies aim to create employee awareness and ensure that they understand the way in which it should be used, while providing a framework for evaluating employee behaviour. You must communicate the policy to your employees and obtain their acceptance of it.

Employees should be specifically trained on usage as part of their induction and ongoing appraisal process.

Gill Hunter of commercial law firm Robert Muckle LLP, stresses the importance of enforcing and policing your acceptable use policy. “If you do fail to do so, it may not stand up to challenge and your policy could be rendered ineffective,” she warns.

It is also worth investigating suitable software solutions. For example:

• Website filtering allows you to block website privileges and control browsing.
• Anti-spam filtering allows you to regulate incoming email from unsuitable domains, for example, subscriptions to joke emails and other non-work related emails.
• Anti-porn filtering allows you to regulate email for pornographic material.
• Web anti-virus allows employees to safely browse the internet, free from viruses.

Relevant links

Cost of workplace web use could rise

Scotsman article: 'Big Boss is watching you' 

Stop employees cyberslacking

Cyberslacking: dictionary definition

Robert Muckle LLP 

Information Commissioner's Office 

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