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What
We Saw on the Computer and Depressed Over Gossip
by Dr. Lynne
Curry
Question:
At the company Christmas party, held at a supervisor's home, a bored
employee sat down at a computer and started playing around. This
supervisor does a lot of company work at home and had his computer
up and running. The employee poked around in the supervisor's favorites
section and discovered the supervisor frequently visits porno web
sites and even uploads smutty pictures.
I
found out about this incident after I left the party but apparently
as many as six employees gathered around the computer during the
evening and so this supervisor's secret life is now open knowledge.
Do I let this go because we learned about the problem only because
the supervisor was generous enough to open his house to the office
for a Christmas party? Or can I fire him for being stupid and thus
send a message?
Answer:
Given the number of employees involved and the need for supervisors
to be role models, you can't let this situation pass unmanaged.
Because the incident occurred off-site, however, you need to consider
several key points.
Who
paid for the supervisor's home computer? If your company owns the
computer, what policies do you have concerning appropriate computer
usage and whether your employees have the right to expect privacy
concerning their home computers? What policies do you have governing
supervisory conduct? If your supervisor owns his home computer,
you may not be able to do anything.
If,
however, your company owns the computer, you can potentially fire
your supervisor for using company property inappropriately. In a
recent case, TBG Insurance Services Corporation fired an employee
for accessing pornographic sites on a company purchased home computer.
In that case, TBG laid the foundation to be able to handle the type
of problem you just experienced by having their employee sign a
statement acknowledging that TBG had the right to monitor his computer
usage and agreeing to use the computer exclusively for business
purposes.
When TBG's employee argued he had the right to expect privacy because
he used the company's computer in his home, the court disagreed,
stating that employer monitoring of company computers has become
normal, given that more than three-quarters of the country's major
firms monitor, record and review employee job communications.
Even without these policies, however, employers have the right to
expect their supervisors to uphold certain standards of judgment.
Depending on this supervisor's track record, your personnel policies,
and how you've handled other supervisors who cross the line, you
may decide on a punishment between counseling and termination. Before
you decide what to do however, you need to investigate this situation.
Otherwise, since you left the party before the incident occurred,
you risk disciplining based on hearsay. An investigation also sends
a message to your employees that you consider this situation serious.
Once you've answered these questions and investigated the situation,
you can decide on a course of action that successfully balances
between doing too much and not enough.
Question:
One of our employees is suing our company for worker's compensation,
saying she's depressed and has developed an ulcer because the other
women in the office gossip about her. She claims her therapist diagnosed
her as suffering from depression triggered by job stress. Do I have
to take this seriously?
Answer:
Although you need to take both gossip and any worker's comp claim
seriously, your employee may find it difficult to win worker's comp
benefits. In a recent similar case, a California Court ruled against
an employee claiming depression and worker's comp injury because
her co-workers gossiped about her personal life, calling her a "tramp"
and "husband stealer." According to the court ruling,
the employee didn't have a direct work-related cause for her depression
because co-worker gossip about her private life was not part of
the employment relationship.
While
this claim may blow over, however, you need to tackle your company's
gossip culture. Was this employee simply too thin-skinned or do
you have employees who consider character assassination a favorite
blood sport? If so, meet with them and ask them to cut it out or
risk discipline. When employees get sick because other employees
consider them a target for group discussion, you have a problem
that can erode many employees' morale and productivity.
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