In 2002, Harris Interactive, Inc. surveyed both employees and HR managers at companies ranging in size from 25 to 38,000 employees. The study on employee Internet use at work revealed some interesting trends.

On average, employers report that workers spend 8.3 hours – or more than one entire workday – accessing non-work related sites at work each week.

One out of every four employees reported feeling addicted to, or compulsive in, his/her use of the Internet.

In contrast, only 8 percent of employers reported any knowledge of current or former employees that had become addicted to, or compulsive in his/her use of the Internet.

Those numbers have undoubtedly gone up significantly since the survey was taken, as use of the Internet has increased by more than 1000 percent since that time.

What do employees access?

Besides e-mail, employees reported that the following categories of Web content are most addictive:

• Shopping – 24 percent
• News – 23 percent
• Pornography – 18 percent
• Gambling – 8 percent

   While 78 percent of employers block employee access to pornography, only 20 percent block access to shopping and auction sites, 47 percent to gambling, and 4 percent to news. Thus, many corporations fail to block Web sites that employees find most addictive.

One major company tracked all traffic going across its Internet connection and discovered only 23 percent of the usage was business related.

Seventy-eight percent of employers who allow Internet access at work currently have a written policy for employees outlining appropriate and inappropriate uses of the Internet.

Conversely, that means that 22 percent of employers with workplace access to the Internet have no written policy regarding the use or misuse of the Internet!

With no policy, there is also no guideline to follow if an employee is discovered to be gambling online during work, visiting pornographic sites, accessing and distributing personal e-mail, or otherwise using the Internet compulsively.

With no written policy in place, employers are also on questionable legal ground for dismissing employees who spend their time surfing the net rather than working.