This last menace gives an added dimension to the problem, apart from lost workhours. Workers dealing in or going through sexually explicit material on the Net can, and have, led their employers into legal hassles. People using e-mail to harass co-workers or opening pornographic sites on their monitors can create a hostile environment for others, and thus cause discipline and morale problems. Because a worker is using company computers and Internet access for whatever he is doing, the company by default becomes responsible for his electronic activity outside the office too. While this has not become a serious problem in India, essentially because of our cumbersome legal process, it is a major nuisance and money drain in the USA. Chevron Corp. and Microsoft have both settled sexual-harassment lawsuits for $2.2 million each for internally circulated e-mails that created hostile work environments.

As the concept of online money transfer catches on in India, some smart Alecks could also try financial fraud using company infrastructure.

Yet another loss caused to a company by truant employees is overloading of the network. Bandwidth is limited, and should be best employed for office work. But when workers start downloading games, music or other software, the speed of the whole network suffers. It is also noticed that when people have access to the Internet, they tend to download a lot of "interesting titbits" and save them, taking up precious storage space.

In a company that has sensitive or classified information, irresponsible employees could wittingly or unwittingly transmit such data over insecure networks, causing damage.

If the possibilities are so serious, does one take away Internet access? Well, that’s not possible in a lot of cases, as work may depend on it, and may not be desirable in others. Also, the young generation of workers now doesn’t treat Internet access as a luxury, but a necessity as well as a right.

One good option is to have an Internet access policy settled with the employees that allows the company to monitor its workers’ Net activity. The terms of thepolicy have to be settled beforehand and every worker should be made aware of the policy. When a worker knows his correspondence is being monitored, he cannot reasonably claim infringement of privacy.

Respecting a worker’s basic privacy and essential needs, an employer could include provisions for private use of Internet in the policy.

The policy should generally lay down the kind of sites a worker is not allowed to visit on office machines. Employees may be told not to use official e-mail identities for personal use. They may also be advised that their e-mails cannot be guaranteed to be private as they may be monitored for content. Other browsing can also be monitored.

A company can impose these dos and don’ts rightfully as the infrastructure is owned by it and is meant for business purposes; any use other than for business is misuse or abuse.

Today a large number of software options are available that can monitor each and every digital step of a worker in office, from what they may have typed on their machines to which site they visited and when. Certain software can even send a kind of alarm to the administrator whenever a user visits a pornographic site. More than three-fourths of US companies employ such software, though there are serious concerns from the civil libertarians regarding this issue

While it may make a company safe, excessive monitoring or strict control of Internet access can also affect employee morale and create a negative work environment. Some compare monitoring to x-raying briefcases. "If you don’t have any indication my performance is lacking, why check my mail?" protests one hassled employee.

A heavy-handed approach has the potential of backfiring. The best option would be to build an environment of trust. While it may be wise to have an Internet access policy for employees, just to safeguard against legal problems, as well as to monitor excessive non-work surfing, it is best to let the control in the hands of an immediate human supervisor who can assess usage in a more flexible manner. Allow access to your employees, but with reasonable provisos.

Several companies make it clear that employees may use resources in off-hours like lunch break for whatever they want, apart from what is illegal. E-mailing is allowed, but employees are told not to clutter servers with stored old mail. Never download an attachment without scanning for virus. Most employees would accept such restrictions happily, particularly if they are made clear beforehand.

While most managers in India agree that productivity is an issue with regard to frivolous browsing, they have not experienced seriouslegal problems. This maybe due to the fact that not many people resort to the legal course against harassment as the fight may turn out to be long and arduous. This, however, does not mean that there are no legal pitfalls in this country.

Pornography, however, is taken seriously by most companies and a lot of them use software to monitor employees’ surfing on that account and even use blocking software. This may be due to the unhealthy atmosphere it may create.

Says Vijay Kaul, Vice-President, Connect, Chandigarh, "The employees have practically unlimited access to the Internet at Connect. Since we are a part of the telecommunication industry, the Internet is an effective tool for the various departments within the organisation to carry out their work efficiently. We have, as such, no policy on employee Internet usage. However, indiscriminate usage of the Internet is discouraged at the departmental level and employees are expected to exercise self control and discipline."

In a similar vein, Shehnaz Gill, Branch Manager, Satyam Chandigarh, says: "We go by faith and have trust in the staff to behave responsibly. At times we have had problems with virus creeping in through employees’ e-mails, but they have been warned against that and asked to be careful—that served the purpose. Also, the workload is such that there is not much leeway for the staff to indulge in non-productive activity."

Sandeep Sharma, Director, Glide, says while his company does not have a formal policy, it does use software to block access to sites it does not want the staff to visit. Also, they discourage Web-based e-mail—which is difficult to monitor—and give company identities to employees to prevent inappropriate activity.

While Indian companies may have yet not burnt their fingers on unregulated Internet access to employees, the day it happens may not be far as online money transaction catches on and Internet access increases. As of nowgeneral Internet access to employees in India is available only in IT companies, but it is spreading in other companies as well.

The problems posed are serious and need tough tackling, but the ideal solutions would be employee education and proper, humane monitoring.