Employees Sacked for Spending Too Much Time on the Web

Many of the large companies from all around the world prefer to restrict the access of their employees to numerous websites in order to avoid affecting the productivity and to keep them focused on their job. However, three employees from the Neath Port Talbot council in Wales were sacked after they spent too much time on eBay during the working day.

While one of them was fired by the superiors, two workers preferred to resign from their position but it seems like two more employees are currently under investigations. The most interesting fact is that the council already installed web filters on the computers but instead of blocking eBay, they restricted the access to porn pages and other inappropriate content.

"Most businesses allow some level of internet access during office hours, and this is crucial to many jobs. However, it is essential that employees are not allowed to run wild and spend as much time as they like on whatever happens to be their favorite site," said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos.

"When staff do start to do this, firms must nip the problem in the bud before it can escalate into the kind of situation Neath Port Talbot council is currently experiencing. It's simple to block access to non-essential websites, and certainly a lot less embarrassing than having to sack or discipline staff."

There are numerous techniques to block the access to certain websites but as long as they are not configured as they should be, these applications are useless. eBay is now joining the group of the webpages which should be restricted at work, a group which usually included social networking websites, video and photo sharing services as well as chatting utilities and games. For example, YouTube and Facebook are just two of the solutions which are already blocked in numerous companies.