When the company conducted its own internal investigation, Munzer volunteered that he was receiving professional help for Internet addictive disorder, a recognized illness estimated to afflict 10 percent of Web users. Munzer also claimed that personal use of the Internet was common in the office and that he never missed a deadline. Unfortunately, Working People did not yet have an Internet usage policy. Nonetheless, the conduct was a clear misuse of employer time and equipment, and the sexual nature of the websites was explicitly prohibited by the company's antiharassment policy. The above story is from a real case.
Technology provides new challenges for laws written before the Internet entered the workplace.
Based on our practice at Littler Mendelson, we estimate that more than half of all employment and labor law cases involve some aspect of workplace technology. Employees need to know ahead of time what constitutes acceptable Internet use. While the HR and legal departments are of course heavily involved in the creation of such a policy, CIOs are often given the assignment of building a draft policy. More and more, CEOs and CFOs want to finalize the policy statement because the Internet has become increasingly central to the employers' mission. But CIOs will be on the front lines of its implementation.