How to Lose a Job: Internet Strategies You Can Use to Get Fired

If you’re using the internet at work or at home for email, online chats, internet surfing, Google searching, and blogging you could be fired. Most companies have internet use policies in place. Before you use the net at work, make sure that you know and follow the Internet usage policy of the company you work for. And if you’re at home, be careful about what you publish online. Inappropriate behavior on the net, whether at work or at home, can get you fired, sometimes before you even get the job! If a hiring manager or job recruiter finds inappropriate material on the Internet about you or by you, it can cost you a job interview.

If you currently have a job and use the Internet at work conducting personal business and you think that no one knows that you do, think again. There are many ways to find out what someone has been doing on the Internet. Sometimes, the discovery is software and/or network based, other times it is hardware based. If you think you’re smarter than the IT person at your company, then you can get fired too if you misuse the company’s equipment and Internet service. You may think it’s “your work computer” and that the “Internet is free”, but it’s not, when you’re at work. If a company owns the computer equipment that you use at work and pays for the Internet connectivity, then legally they have the right to tell you how you can use it. They also have the right to fire you for misusing it. Do you know what your company’s Internet policy is? If you don’t, you can join the ranks of many who didn’t abide by their company’s Acceptable Use Policy for the Internet.

Fox News reported that Toquir Choudhr, a 14 year veteran of the N.Y. Department of Education, was fired for using the Internet to browse news and travel sites.

The Computer Security blog reports that a woman “almost lost her job” because of inappropriate computer use at work. The problem turned out to be that the inappropriate material found on her computer was put there by someone else, when she was away from her desk. Luckily, for her, the company investigated and found out who was using her work computer inappropriately.

Christine Axsmith, a contract employee, who was working for the Central Intelligence Agency was fired by her employer, B.A.E. Systems, which has an information technology contract with the C.I.A. Ms. Axsmith said her message started off by saying “Waterboarding is torture, and torture is wrong.”  Axsmith says that she apologize right away and thought she would receive a reprimand and her blog would be eliminated. She never expect to be fired. Now, she says, “I’m scared, terrified really” of being criminally prosecuted for unauthorized use of a government computer system. 

James Pacenza, 58, of Montgomery, N.Y. , was fired by IBM for visiting an adult chat room at work is suing the company for $5 million, claiming that it is his way to treat the post traumatic stress disorder he suffers from after seeing a friend killed in Vietnam in 1969. He is claiming protection from being fired under the American Disabilities Act. IBM says that their policy against surfing sexually oriented websites is very clear. They say this not the first time that Pacenza was warned about his behavior, four months earlier, when he visited an Internet chat room and participated in inappropriate sex chat at work. IBM says sex behavior disorders are excluded from the ADA. They also denied that they discriminated against him because of his age.

Blogging at work can also get you fired, before you even start a new job.  In the article “Bloggers beware—companies  watching”, employers are searching the web to find out what job candidates are posting on the Internet. They are checking to see if you have a blog and if you do, they are reading the blog, to get a better idea of what kind of person you are. Are you writing defamatory remarks about others in your blog? Are you talking about how drunk you got at the last party you went to? Are you posting pictures of yourself that will send the wrong message to a prospective employer? Many employers are also looking at profiles on the Internet, like those posted on MySpace.

Are you addicted to the Internet?

What is the definition of an addict? It is the condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or or involved in something. If you are using the Internet at work on non-work activities, then you may be an Internet addict.

“David Greenfield, PH.D has conducted one of the largest surveys on the topic to date: a 1998 study of 18,000 Internet users who logged onto the ABC News Web site. He found that 5.7 percent of his sample met the criteria for compulsive Internet use. Those findings square with figures from smaller studies done by others, which range from 6 percent to 14 percent. Study participants who met Greenfield’s criteria (adapted from criteria for compulsive gambling) were particularly hooked on chat rooms, pornography, online shopping and e-mail, he found. About a third said they use the Internet as a form of escape or to alter their mood on a regular basis.” - Is Internet addiction real?- APA

Click here to take a comedic look at people who have admitted being addicted to the Internet. Internet addiction, however, is no laughing matter. The examples listed in this article, are just a fraction of the many people who have not realized that today’s work environment is not the same kind of work environment that existed just 5 years ago. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, they say, which applies to Internet policy use too.