Too much surfing, not enough work: why time-wasting on the Internet has some bosses concerned.

A manager glances across the office and sees his team members glued to their PCs. "That computer network was worth every penny. Never seen them work so hard," he probably thinks to himself. But the boss is blissfully unaware that only half the team is actually working. One employee is downloading music files, another is checking football scores, another is job hunting and still another is playing a game of chess with a doctor from Mozambique. Looks can be deceiving.

As Oscar Wilde put it, "I can resist anything but temptation." Give employees access to the Internet and email accounts, and they are presented with enough distractions to turn the most dedicated professionals into serial slackers.

WORKING 9-5?

Thirty-seven percent of portal site Todito.com's 500,000 daily visitors come to the site during work hours. The conflict in Iraq has seen online news and video surfing rise by some 20% as people try to stay on top of the latest events. But bosses would prefer to keep the "Shock and Awe" out of the office for three principal reasons.

The first, and most obvious, is that the wasted time costs companies money. Take a medium-sized company of 1,000 employees. If each worker spends an hour each day slacking online, at an average cost per employee of 100 pesos per hour, the firm would lose 25 million pesos a year.

Next, it costs bandwidth. This is the amount of data that can be passed through an Internet connection at any one time. The more stuff employees are downloading at a given moment, the slower the connection becomes for everyone else. Video and music files are especially culpable.

"For this reason, we block the use of music download sites from our employees," said Adrian Gonzales, Todito.com's chief operating officer.

The final problem comes from the embarrassments, let alone the liabilities, that employee email and Internet misuse can inflict on the company. One example is an infamous "tasteless" email sent between employees at a prestigious British law firm. Eventually read by millions around the globe, the sexually explicit chatter caused red faces among the senior partners. Such woes are an obvious concern for management. What can be done?

The simplest method is to establish and communicate company rules by creating an Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP).

"Traditionally, employers gave their staff full Internet access with no control systems in place and no proper training or information. They did not even outline exactly what the Internet should not be used for," says Martino Corbelli of Surf Control, an Internet management software maker. With a usage policy, employees know exactly what they can and cannot do online.

BE STRICT BUT NOT TOO STRICT

To ensure workers tow the line, software companies have developed tools that allow managers to monitor all emails they send and receive, as well as the sites they visit. This way, cyber-slacking is just as visible as kicking back at your desk with a bottle of Corona and a copy of Playboy. But is this fair play?

According to Luis Manuel Guaida, an expert on Mexican labor law and partner at Guaida y Asociados, it is. "Legally, employees are expected to dedicate their time and use of resources, like the Internet, to working. The employer is entitled to monitor their activity as long as it has made all reasonable efforts to inform employees that their email and Internet use may be monitored."

However, the Big Brother solution may cause bad vibes among staff. Another option is to restrict what users can do while online. For example, a data entry clerk may have access only to the company Web site and the internal email system.

To the top brass, worried about the bottom line, this may all sound in harmony with their belt-tightening plans. However, spoil-sport measures can backfire. In the business world, the Internet has become as fundamental as a desk and chair. Those who over-restrict its use will see lines by the fax machine, phone bills rise and mailrooms swamped.

Furthermore, as the management mantra goes, we are entering the knowledge economy, where information is the key to survival. Cut a workforce from the Internet and they may lose their best sources of information. Finally, despite fancy monitoring technology and tough rules, great slackers will always find a way to beat the system. People that clever are usually worth holding onto anyway.

Rawdon Messenger is a Mexico City-based freelance writer and IT columnist far the Evening Standard of London.