the impact of porn on business: Be proactive!

Over the last couple of weeks, ROCK has taken a look at the impact of porn on business. The CP80 Foundation sums up the impact well: “The bottom line is internet pornography is bad for business unless of course, you are a pornographer.”

Websense, an internet security company, has suggested the following steps that you can take to protect your company:

• Create an “acceptable use policy” for internet usage.
• Create a disclaimer about the dangers of the Internet.
• Create a summary of appropriate and inappropriate uses of the Internet.
• Create a statement about avoiding frivolous use.
• Create a ‘no expectation of privacy’ statement that waives privacy rights over any materials sent or created using the company’s computer network.

ROCK offers employee education on the harmful effects of adult pornography.  We can also make recommendations of resources for pornography addictions and suggestions for internet filters.  Contact ROCK at (502) 297-9892 or info@myrocktoday.org.

the impact of porn on business: lost opportunities

When measuring the impact of porn on your business, there are many intangibles to consider, including the cost of lost opportunitites. Company executives are distracted with handling internal conflict of employees consuming porn on the job. Company resources are drained to deal with internet porn in the workplace. And employees are wasting time viewing internet pornography instead of working. Can you afford to lose opportunities in this economy?

Tomorrow we’ll discuss what you can do to protect your company from the impact of porn.

the impact of porn on business: legal liabilities

Have you ever wondered how other employees are impacted at your business by an employee consuming porn?  It often creates a hostile work environment and if unaddressed, may lead to a sexual harassment lawsuit. 

Most often, we read about this trend in the case of librarians.  Many libraries have mandated federal filters that are attached to federal funds, but it is still easy to pull up pornography from a direct link.  Who is left to enforce the library policy for appropriate computer usage?  The librarians.    

Just this week, a librarian in Birmingham, Ala., filed a lawsuit against her employer, the library, for a computer usage policy that allows a sexually hostile work environment.  She also alleges that she has been sexually harassed by library patrons who have made sexually aggressive comments and who have sexually touched her.

Libraries have been grappling with this issue for almost a decade.  In 2003, a group of 12 library employees at the Minneapolis Public Library filed a complaint with the EEOC claiming that “During the recent course of my employment I have been subjected to repeated exposure to sexually explicit materials and sexual activity at my place of employment.  My employer has adopted an Internet access policy which allows for unrestricted access to sexually explicit Internet sites.”  After an EEOC ruling that the library’s conditions created a hostile work environment, the employees filed a 31-page complaint in federal court detailing the allegations.  The outcome of the case was a $435,000 settlement paid to the plantiffs.   

Dial Corporation is private sector example of the costly impact of pornography and sexual harassment on business.  In 2007, Dial Corp. agreed to pay $10 million to settle class action sexual harassment allegations brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  The EEOC’s suit clamied widespread lewd remarks, physical assaults, displays of pornography and other acts of harassment and intimidation of femail employees.  The Employment Law Alliance said: “This case demonstrates the high financial and other consequences of management tolerance of sexually inappropriate activities at even one facility.”

The impact of porn on business that includes a legal liability can be calculated; $435,000 for Minnesota Public Libraries (plus legal fees) and $10 million for the Dial Corp. (plus legal fees).  Tomorrow, we’ll look at another intangible cost of pornography – lost opportunities.

the impact of porn on business: disruptive work environments

In addition to the tangible costs associated with keeping pornography out of your work place, there are intangible costs to consider. If your company has had to take action to terminate an employee because of their misuse of company computer policy by consuming porn on the job, then your company will feel the void from the fired employee. Others on the team will have to pick up the slack until someone new is hired and trained. There is also the possibility of a computer slow-down as work is performed to keep your system clean and running smoothly while it combats extra spam eamil and possible virus that have been into your network.

The impact of porn on business: lost human capital

The cost of pornography on businesses continues to add up when employers consider the company’s investment into their employees.  If a company has to fire an employee because of their porn consumption on company time, there are three ways they are losing money.

• Losing employees as a result of disciplinary actions that result in termination.
• Lost investment into the education and training of those employees. 
• Time and resources invested for new employees.

In 2008, The Washington Post reported that 9 D.C. government workers were fired for looking at porn (more than 19,000 times in 2007).  Three of those employees looked at porn an average of 200 times per work day.  Thirty-two other D.C. government employees visited porn sites more than 2000 times. 

There is no doubt that there are cases like this one in the private sector, but a local company is less likely to air their dirty laundry to the public.  But it cost them just the same.

the impact of pornography on business: lost productivity

As an employer, you have probably estimated the amount of time that employees spend on activities that are not in  their job description.  Because of anonymity and accessibility, the work place has become a hot spot for using porn.  According to one porn industry consultancy, 70 percent of all Internet porn traffic occurs during 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.   In a Business Week article, Dave Greenfield, a psychotherapist who treats porn addicts, said, “The peak hours for Internet porn use are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  You’ve got the ease of access.  In some cases, it’s like the company putting a six-pack on an alcoholic’s desk, and saying, “Here, don’t drink it.” 

 A 4-year-old study shows that 20 percent of men and 13 percent of women admit to accessing porngraphy at work.  Another study shares that more than 75 percent of people at work have accidentally visited a pornographic website; 15 percent of workers report having accidentally visited such sites more than 10 times.  

Taxpayers only have to flashback to the recent SEC debacle  to wonder what might have happened if employees were doing their jobs instead of consuming porn while watching over the financial institutions in America.  Last year it came to light that employees of the National Science Foundation, which is a watchdog that investigates grant fraud, were consuming porn on the job.   Before that it was D.C. government workers.