Web Porn at Work
Al Smetana is the founding president of a medium-sized, Midwestern manufacturing firm, Rayburn Unlimited. He’s proud if the way his company has grown, culture committed to honesty, integrity, and the intrinsic value of each individual. But now those values are being put to the test.
It began when Al learned that an employee had tapped into the company’s computer system and figured out how to read people’s email and to learn what Web sites they visited. Determining who the culprit was wasn’t difficult. When confronted about it, the employee admitted what he had done. Al immediately terminated his employment. But as he left, the employee said angrily, “Just ask Lindley about his computer usage,” referring to Craig Lindley, associate vice president for human resources and an old friend of Al’s. Although Al didn’t trust the discharged employee, he was disturbed by his comment and reluctant to let it go. So he called Craig Lindley into his office and asked him about it.
After a few minutes of gentle questioning, Craig started weeping. When he recovered himself, he explained that for the past year or so he had been hooked on pornography on the Web, and at the office sometimes spent an hour or so a day looking at it. Al asked him whether his wife knew. Craig said she didn’t. He was too ashamed of his habit to talk to her or anybody about it. Al then told him to take the rest of the day off, to think the matter over, and to return to Al’s office the next morning. When Craig left, Al stood and looked out the window, silently asking himself what he should do.
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Being a student with school internet access I have been irritated with blocking programs. Though they keep unethical content out, they also keep important data out as well. As an adult I believe in being responsible for your own actions. If this incident were to go against the companies ethics then some sort of punishment should be enforced. If it’s not as big of a deal then I believe in having a talk the man and maybe helping him to go and see a therapist because it seems like he has an addiction, especially because it is going on at work.
I too was hooked on to it. One day i realised that my employer had installed networking monitor software which asked for my identity everytime i will type an objectionable word to enter such sites. After few days i realised that my usage rather misusage stopped for fear of disclosing my identity. Having such softwares installed at work places does help to some extent.