Things not to do at your workplace: Playing Online Games #11

It's 2 am, you've been working for 3 hours night shift in your company and you still 5 more to do. Time is passing by so slowly, there is no work and you are already sleepy. How about I play a game of League of Legends? No one will notice for sure. I am putting on my headphones, put the game on and start playing. After a few minutes, while you're sucked in the monitor of your laptop, and completely isolated from the outside world, your boss has been standing right next to you for 5 minutes clapping his feet and having his hands crossed. Oops!

Playing online games is always a fun way of spending your time at work, but unfortunately your work time is not meant for that. Imagine you are an employer and you see your employee playing games instead of working. Obviously you would feel upset and fire that individual. There is one example where 4 people got fired at the same time for playing Fantasy NFL after the company found IM's related to that game. So next time, think twice before opening your browser and writing the game's name.

Source:
Chris Matyszcyzk. (December, 2009). Four Fired for Playing Fantasy NFL at Work. Retrieved from:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10416476-71.html

Things not to do at your workplace: Shopping Online #10

How many times have you been tempted to shop online while at work? I know I have, and that was not just a few times I would catch myself looking stuff up on Ebay, Amazon, Futureshop, etc. However before you start shopping online while you're at work next time, consider the company's consequences. What you do online when you're doing it on your work time is your employer's business. According to Careerbuilder.com annual shopping from work survey, 49% of employees plan on doing shopping online from their office. That is almost half of the employees in every firm! Below you have a chart of how much companies are loosing while you shop in your work times, stats are for November and December 2010.

32% of companies lose $15.000 for just two months because you decided to buy stuff online at work. That is a stunning number! People shop mostly during the Christmas holidays, i.e. after 7th December with 30% from the earlier survey by Carrerbuilders. Also, there are some special days with discounts on items such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday, which usually have electronic items on sale. However, is this temptation to do a little shopping spree online that can save you some time and money worth the risk of losing your job? In my opinion there is a huge NO but I would like to hear from you in the comments below.

Things not to do at your workplace: Looking for a Job #9

An employee will be more attractive to employers when the employee is already employed but that does not mean that the employee should be looking for a new job while at work. This could easily get you fired. You are on your employers time and I know that if I caught an employee searching for another job while at work, that would give me the impression that the employee does not want to stay so I would just make it easier for them and let them go. So if you want to look for another job, just do it on your own time at home.

In this era of downsizing, mass layoffs and reduced retirement benefits, worker loyalty is greatly diminished - their future is in their own hands literally. You cannot blame him for looking for another job, but you can for using his work time to do it.

Source:

ThirdAge News Service (May,2010). Looking for a Job, While on the Job. Retrieved from:

http://www.thirdage.com/your-career/looking-for-a-job-while-on-the-job/

Things not to do at your workplace: Inappropriate Screensavers #8

There are many ways by which serious consequences at workplaces regarding misconduct with workplace equipment can lead to you getting fired or get your boss angry at least. One of them is having inappropriate screensavers in your computer at work. These can be with pornographic content, or with pictures such as "I hate my boss". Literally everything that is related with pornography and work is really wrong and you can be sure that you will not pass well if your boss sees something like that in your computer. Consider any sending, downloading or exhibit pornography, as well as sexually explicit jokes, not appropriate for you at your workplace.

Imagine you leave for a 15 minute break, and your boss passes by to check on your computer, the first thing he sees is the half naked girl on your screen, and thinks if this is his screen saver, what else could he have in his PC? It seems that it's not that big of a deal at first, but it really is crucial to behave professional at your workplace, whatever the job is. Do not let a little thing such as a screensaver make you lose your job.

Things not to do at your workplace: Open Email Attachments #6

So one of the things you want to skip doing while you're working is open your personal email attachments, i.e. save them to your desktop. The reason why you don't want to do this, is because you may unwillingly download viruses, spyware or malware. As you know, emails, especially the ones that go into your spam folder, are full of unwanted programs and spyware that could really damage your computer. If you have a work computer, and you download a virus on it, it could really damage it and then share it to the other computers that are on the same network. Work computers especially have really important information on them and what could happen if you delete it or damage it by downloading your email attachments? Yes, you will get fired right away.

Till now we have learned many different ways that a machine such as your computer can damage your work and profits, and with that your life as well. Why are using them so much then? Why is it so essential to open your email right at that time, or watch that movie episode? It really is an intriguing debate how people are impatient and want to do everything right at the same moment they think of it. I want to hear your thought in the comment box below.

Things not to do at your workplace: Streaming Videos #5

As we all know, people, especially men, like watching sports. All around the world there are millions of people that would do anything to watch their favorite team, and I am one of them as well. However, it sometimes happens that we are unavailable to watch it, for ex. soccer games in Europe are play at a different time because of the different time zones, so to watch a Champions League game, you would have to be home at 3pm on a working day (Tuesday,Wednesday). Most people are doing something in that part of the day, like studying or maybe working.

So, one way internet has revolutionized in this segment is providing live streams of sport games. You can literally watch every game at any time, wherever you are. But, this could also reflect really bad on people that are doing this in the time they're supposed to be working. It has happened to me before and I've been warned a couple of times for doing it. Some bosses will not tolerate that, because yes, you can watch the game later or download it from the internet, but it is not the same when you watch at the same when it's happening. However, try limiting it to the lowest point, because you could easily get fined or fired over that.

What about you, do you guys approve watching sports games on live streams or no? Do you think one should be fired because he watched the Maple Leafs or the Blue Jays online at work? 

Things not to do at your workplace: Misuse of your time (and employers money) #4

The internet has become a new hang out spot for half of the world's population. It's growth has been unimaginable, and it has impacted individuals at work so much that they sometimes forget what real work is. The world has changed so much that we would rather send a Facebook message or a Twitter rather than going out on a coffee or watch a movie.

According to a survey in the US by Salary.com shows how much time are people wasting at work.

So 52% of workers are using the time at work for Surfing the internet for personal use, out of 2700 people that were in the survey that means that over 1350 of them are doing that. It seems many employees are just too busy socializing on Facebook, using LinkedIn, reading/emailing of Yahoo/Google etc. 

I personally think that if you give an employee full freedom on their job, that lasts approximately 7 hours, they are almost 99% chances that they will use that time to do anything but work related activities. Even if you restrict them, you cannot stop them from using their handheld devices such as smart phones, tablets etc.

However, here is an interesting question for you. Would you fire someone over his internet use, and do you think its right to fire someone for wasting time on the internet? What do you think is a more serious issue, surfing the web or reading a book/sleeping?

Things not to do at your workplace: Offensive comments on Social Media #3

Probably everyone who is reading this post, already has his own facebook, twitter, youtube or instagram profile. They represent your personal space, and people can get to know more about who you are by seeing your activities on all of those social media sites. As good as it looks, it has its bad sides if you use it inappropriately. Yes, its supposed to be your profile and you are supposed to post whatever you want, but have in mind before posting offensive comments about someone, that it is still open to the public. 

It has happened many times before, that people get fined or even fired over offensive comments on their facebook or twitter. For example, me as a huge soccer fan, I know a lot of player that got fined thousands of dollars for inappropriate behavior on social media, and there was one player named Joey Barton that even got fired from his club Newcastle United, for offensive language on his twitter account about the referee's decisions. Below you have a video from a person who has been fired over a facebook post about his boss.