Porn In The Workplace
No one wants to discuss this issue, but in fact, employees and managers do view porn in the workplace. Not all companies monitor internet activity and it can be difficult to know who is viewing porn in your workplace. With technology employees may use their own equipment to view it, yet they are still using the internet access of the company. Just because you don’t know it’s happening, doesn’t mean that other members of your team aren’t aware of it.
I found this case study of a women who filed sexual harrassment against her employer even though the porn activity wasn’t directed towards her, but she was aware that her manager was viewing and receiving porn through the mail.
The Real Boss’s “Porn in the USA” on IceMiller.com. This is an easy-to-read legal explanation on the US Court of Appeals decision on this case.
A recent study estimates that a new pornographic video is produced every 39 minutes in the United States. According to a lawsuit filed by a female university secretary, that was about how often her boss watched porn in his office. The secretary alleged that her boss, a professor, spent one to two hours every day viewing hard-core pornography on a television in his office. How did she know?
Managers need to be aware about what is happening in their department. If an employee comes to you about being exposed to porn by another employee, take this seriously and act on it immediately.
Two issues:
Employees who engage in this type of behavior in the workplace.
Employers who don’t act to stop inappropriate behaviors in the workplace.
I did some research on viewing porn in the workplace…
Society for Human Resources (SHRM) had an article on “Porn Addiction Seen as Growing Workplace Problem.” A book “Porn @Work” by Michael Leahy included the following statistics.
- Seventy percent of all online porn access occurs during the 9 a.m.-5 p.m. workday.
- Twenty percent of men and 13 percent of women admit they download porn at work.
- Two out of three of 500 polled human resources professionals said they have found pornography on their employees’ computers.
Think about your work environment…is your internet access being monitored and do you review employee’s computers to see the history of their internet browsing?
These statistics indicate that this is a silent harrassment issue waiting to explode.
Be well,
Pat
