Employment Can Be Fleeting...

As a couple of bloggers that I have read about have learned.

I have read the blogs of at least three people now who were fired for their internet usage. It just reminds me why it is so important to not give an employer any reason to fire you if you can avoid it…if you do in fact want to remain employed that is. I'm not going to give up my blog…but this is a great reminder of why I need to spend more time working and less time slacking. Not just because it's the honest thing to do but because I don't like what the consequences could be. That's why blog posts have waned a little bit lately. That's my higher power at work, telling me what I *should* be doing doesn't match what I *am* doing. So I am trying to be more honest about my time at work.

Which is why my cube is going to be reconfigured next week…to allow me to talk to coworkers more easily as well as to help me get honest…and no, that wasn't my sup's idea. It was mine. Straight from the higher power though. After I said it, I immediately felt fearful. I don't think I'd get fired without a warning unless I had some seriously messed up stuff and p*ssed off a bunch of people in my department, but why take the chance? Some browsing is ok. Spending hours doing it: not ok. That *is* my employer's time, after all. And it's the most expensive commodity that I have any direct contact with.

It's nice to know what they actually call it in HR'ese when they fire someone for this stuff. "Excessive internet usage". Makes sense…that's what I'd call it if I were still documenting unemployment claims. But employers should be advised that it may be difficult to avoid paying unemployment without warning the employee first, especially if their internet usage policy is vague, that is, it's not all or nothing or it doesn't quantify what it considers to be misconduct - the misconduct is not measurable.

Does getting unemployment make all that big of a difference? Probably not to the employer, other than the feeling of gall after having fired an employee for what they considered to be egregious misconduct. But the employee would certainly feel pretty vindicated that their termination had a tinge of unfairness to it.

I guess all this is moot. I still have expense reports to crank out today.