Posted by arlene

The conflicts and the risks between the employee and the company, or the employee, company, and law enforcement officials. There is one more major area of exposure about which every executive must be concerned: disputes and claims among employees, most notably those of sexual harassment. The types of activities and statements considered harassment are becoming more diverse and more numerous—from the White House and Congress to the local factory or firm.

One trend relevant to anyone connecting employees to the Web is the claim that material downloaded and distributed or displayed by others is harassing and demeaning. The most familiar context for this is pornography. The stereotypical pin-up calendar in the mechanic’s office has evolved into the photograph or video file stored on an analyst’s hard drive and shown to a colleague who may not appreciate it. Racial jokes, cartoons, and even political messages may be considered harassment as well.

Some very large companies and institutions, including Morgan Stanley, CompuServe, and even Harvard Divinity School have been publicly embarrassed by reports of employees accessing sex sites. Still others have disciplined or fired employees found to be downloading sexually explicit files.

Harassment is in the eye of the beholder, the complaining employee. It may be difficult for a business to determine which types of downloads might be harassing. What happens, for example, when you are informed by a systems administrator of some potentially harassing material found on a hard drive during routine maintenance? Do you delete the material? Preserve it for potential litigation? Reprimand or fire the offending employee? Taking overly aggressive action may be unnecessary, and could even expose your company to claims by the downloader for infringement of privacy or (if fired) wrongful termination. Failing to take action upon notice, though, could worsen your company’s position if a harassment suit is in fact brought against you. Like many other human resources questions, a Web use policy in place ahead of time will provide valuable guidance.

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