The story of a bureaucrat in Japan who was suspended and demoted for offensive surfing at work provides the public (and you lucky HR Blunders readers), an opportunity to chime in on what would constitute appropriate discipline.
Here’s the scoop: A 57-year-old Kinokawa City bureaucrat was spending up to three hours almost every work day surfing porn at work. This went on for eight months.
(We’ll do the math for you. Eight months, minus some vacation and holidays, five days a week, for 90 minutes average per day, is about 240 hours looking at naughty pictures at his desk. That’s six work weeks’ worth of wanton Web surfing.)
The city found out about his online ogling because his computer kept on picking up a particular virus, according to media reports.
The porn sites were from other countries, so they got through the city’s security net, said to one official.
His punishment: three months suspension and a demotion.
Angered citizens called city hall saying the suspension wasn’t enough.
What do you think? And what fate would employees at your company meet if they surfed porn at work?
