Job givers who don't want their worker bees picking the porn off the Internet on the job should be very specific about it in their employee handbooks, a British job hunting Website advises.
That comes in the wake of a senior personnel officer fired from the local government in Hillindon, a London borough, when he was caught pulling down the cyberporn, but getting his firing thrown out as unfair because the employee handbook might have been too vague on such policies.
"Although the employee was guilty of misconduct, he had not been guilty of gross misconduct, the tribunal ruled," said job hunting site HR Gateway UK.
"Employee handbooks should be explicit on porn and that downloading porn is a matter of gross misconduct," suggested Veronica Dean, an attorney, to HR Gateway. "Some also place the downloading of games in this as well as virus can come with them. However, as well as being specific on what is serious and gross misconduct, any handbook also needs to be flexible so that employees do not feel too constrained."
