Internet as Employment Challenge Cyberslacking

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Cyber slacking refers to the personal use of the internet at the workplace (Roberts 1). The employees who surf the internet for personal reasons during working hours are called cyber slackers or cyberloofers. The employees who cyber slack at work look very busy on their keyboards and an onlooker will usually assume that they are very busy yet they are surfing the internet for fun.

Some even surf pornographic sites while at work or just play online games. Others use the office internet to do personal shopping, look out for vacation locations, job hunt or simply send personal emails. Cyber slacking trend in the office today has become a major challenge in the workplace.

The history of cyber slacking dates back to the beginning of internet use at the workplace. During that time, the speeds of internet were slow as people were using dial up connections and so people did not slack a lot. However, the trend has changed with technological advancement. Today people use broadband, which has increased the internet speeds, and hence people able to surf the faster, access more web content with more ease. The high connection speeds are a temptation that many workers have failed to resist.

The trend of cyber slacking is likely to increase in the future as more people become computer savvy and the technology advances further and the filter software are unable to cope with new sites that are not covered by the filters (Roberts 1). Moreover, employees do not think that the habit is a problem. They do not consider cyber slacking as time wasting as they say they need to take breaks at work and surfing the internet is how they use that time.

Others feel that cyber slacking is okay as long as they multitask and finish their work in good time. Others feel that cyber slacking enables them to learn about computers more hence they have no guilt about using the companies time this way.

The habit of cyber slacking affects the working relationship of employees in the workplace in a number of ways. For instance, an employee who visits pornographic sites may offend another who finds viewing the site (Naughton 1).

Moreover, an employee may send his or her colleagues emails with graphic images and offend them. Some even save the graphic images as their computer screen savers or background for their desktops offending other workers who may use their workstations. Therefore, the trend can create conflicts in the workplace and make the working environment non-conducive for all the employees.

Productivity is affected by cyber slacking negatively. As employees spend their time misusing the internet, their productivity diminishes eventually costing the organizations they work for losses running into billions of dollars. Studies have shown that most cyber slaking takes place between nine a.m. and five p.m. it therefore means that employees are surfing during office hours. Sites such as eBay and pornographic sites report the highest traffic during daytime, which means that people are cyber slacking (Roberts 1).

When employees use the office internet for personal use loss of productivity occurs immediately. The employees have learnt how to camouflage their leisure surfing activities and thus they appear to be working.

They spend time doing non-work related activities such as chatting, exchanging jokes or taking about their slacking activities to get tips on how to carry out the habit. Some spend a few minutes to many hours cyber slacking (Naughton 1). For example, one employee used to send about eighty personal emails ate work at Glasgow hicks Company (Fertell 1). The time spent cyber slacking would have been used to do meaningful work related activities to boost a companys productivity.

In America, about $3.5 billion is spent by corporate on internet annually and employees in cyber slacking activities spend about $ 1 billion of it (Miles, Hu, Beldona and Clay; Naughton 1). The employees will spend a lot of time on the internet reading sensational stories that are making headlines around the world. For example, it was reported that about $310 million was lost as employees logged online to read the story concerning the former United States president Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal (Miles et al 1).

The habit also slows down a companys computer network thus interfering with the smooth working. The slowing down of office networks occurs because of downloading huge files, streaming media and so on. Such activities slow down the internet connection and hurt the performance. The network may also crash or employees trying to download work related files may need to use more time to do so if another employee is streaming music online (Miles et al).

Cyber slacking has pro and cons. The cons are killing of productivity as people surf the internet for personal reasons instead of working. Moreover, companies lose financially because they are the ones that pay for the internet that their employees use to cyber slack. Another con of cyber slacking is the legal implications that can befall a company. Employers may have to battle lawsuits regarding their employees use of the internet such as defamation or sharing of confidential information.

For instance and employee of a company may share a clients information stored in their database and the company may be sued for violating their clients privacy (Fertell 1). Furthermore, a company may come under criticism for allowing their employees to surf pornographic sites while at work and the ethics of a company can become questionable (Roberts 1). More importantly, an employee who cyber slacks may lose their job if the companys policy recommends so if one is caught engaging in the vice.

Conversely, cyber slacking sympathisers say that the habit is good. Employees who cyber slack gets an opportunity to refresh their mind and hence work better when they resume work. Others urge that cyber slacking is a better way of taking a break instead of doing activities such as smoking. Furthermore, allowing employees to cyber slack during regulated hours such as lunchtime may boost their motivation (Fertell 1).

Companies should come up with policies to prevent cyber slacking. A company ought to inform its employees about its cyber slacking policy so that they know that personal use of the office internet has consequences. The knowledge about the policy can deter cyber slacking by a big margin (|Fertell 1). The companies can also use website filtering software. The software can help to monitor the activities of the employees while they are online during working hours. The companies can also block social networking websites such as face book and twitter that people at work often visit (Wedge and Heslam 1).

Finally, cyber slacking will remain a major challenge for employees because it is an ingrained work culture. However, there is hope that it can be curbed by employing preventive measures such as filtering software but preventing the habit altogether is a tall order.

The employees should be sensitized about the problem of cyber slacking as some have no problem with it they should realize it is an unethical habit. Moreover, it a way of cheating the employers time that should be spent working. The companies must be alert and take proactive measures to prevent cyber slacking before it occurs because prevention is better than cure.

Works Cited

Fertell, David. Cyber-Slacking kills productivity. 2002. Web.

Miles, Juline, Bo Hu, Srinkath Beldona and Joan Clay. Cyberslacking! A Liability issue for wired workplaces: The Internet has brought more than distraction to the workplace. Employee. 2001. Web.

Naughton, Keith. The Internet has brought distractions into cubicles, and now corporate America is fighting back. 1999. Web.

Roberts, Bills. When cyber slacking crosses the line. Highlands Ranch 26.13 (2000):56. Web.

Wedge, Dave and Jessica Heslam. Experts say government officials must limit cyber-slacking. McClatchy Tribune Business News Washington. 2009. Web.

Click Here To Order Now!

Internet as Employment Challenge Cyberslacking

Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?

We have qualified writers to help you.

We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.

You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)