(LifeWire) — Brian, a 30-something salesman from New York City, uses bathroom breaks to handle the demands of his second job. The bathroom stall becomes a secret cubicle for his other job as a mortgage broker. He sends e-mails, checks his voice mail and makes appointments.

Many workers “daylight” in defiance of company policy, frustrating managers and human-resource executives.

“I have a certain lifestyle, and I need a certain amount of money coming in,” he says.

Brian isn’t alone. Many Americans are squeezing two jobs into one shift — moonlighting by day, as it were — as a hedge against a sagging economy or to maintain their style of living. While hard data on this below-the-radar economy is anecdotal at best, business coach John M. McKee, the author of “Career Wisdom: 101 Proven Strategies to Ensure Workplace Success,” confirms that he has noticed an increase.

Shoehorning a second career into the same shift as your primary job is tricky — and ethically questionable. Some workers do it with the approval of their superiors. But many do it in defiance of company policy (the main reason most “daylighters” interviewed preferred to remain anonymous) frustrating managers and human-resource executives.

“When you are employed for a firm, 100 percent of your focus should be spent working for that company during regular office hours,” says Debbie McGrath, the founder of HR.com, a Web site for human-resources professionals.

Brian reasons that he’s on top of his day job, so why not strive for more? Even at conventions with his workday boss, he says, “I’ll be standing right next to him making a deal.”

The work-work balance

Throughout a string of occupations, mortgage brokering has always been Brian’s labor of love. “I feel like I own it,” he says. But its unpredictability — he says he can make anywhere from $1,000 to $20,000 a month from his alternative endeavor — made him seek steadier employment.

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His sales gig earns him about $80,000 a year. The combination of the two provides him with three or four nights a week of lavish dining (with a bar bill three times the food bill), several vacations abroad and an apartment in New York City. He’s also blessed with a girlfriend, he says, who understands his workaholic ways.

But he doesn’t think his boss would be so understanding. Nor does Nancy Ancowitz, a business communication coach in New York. “As an entrepreneur and former corporate manager, I think transparency is incredibly important between a manager and staff,” she says. “And I think honesty is incredibly important.”

Ancowitz recommends carving out time for another business on one’s own time. “I wouldn’t sneak around,” she says. “Our reputations follow us.”

As for the rationalization that once one’s desk is clear, anything goes, she says, “My feeling is that there is always something helpful to do, even if you’re a temp.”

Getting the OK

If you’re determined to squeeze out a second career on company time, McGrath, of HR.com, says it is acceptable to ask permission to perform other work during office hours, provided the time is made up. That can be tricky, though. Unless it’s charitable or company-related work, Ancowitz cautions, the request might irk the people who sign your checks.

There are those who are upfront about their dual employment. One 23-year-old former cocktail waitress used her San Francisco job site as a base for pursuing her graphic design career. She says her supervisors didn’t care as long as she sold a certain amount of alcohol.

“Towards the end it became like my little office,” says the woman, who asked that her name not be used to avoid any full-disclosure Googling by prospective employers. “I wasn’t sneaky at all. I blatantly worked on my laptop and talked on the phone with a client when my shift was slow.”

Sandra Boston, a 44-year-old Brooklyn, New York, day-care worker, has been squeezing in two jobs for the past several months. As her preschool-aged charges nap with an assistant watching, she has the go-ahead to make phone calls to set up real estate appointments for later in the day, she says. She makes the calls in such a way that no further communication is needed — the client either shows up or doesn’t. Then she arrives at her real estate office around 5:30 p.m. “By the time I get to the office, I can show two or three apartments,” she says.

McKee, the business adviser, believes the trend is being fueled by older workers not able to replace the income of an earlier single job and younger ones seeking to ease into a new vocation. He says “daylighting” can fill aspirations with the cooperation of a boss, but warns of the toll it could take. “A life with only work and sleep can become very unsatisfying,” he says. “This can become demotivating and may result in an individual — who had previously shown high energy and good future potential — becoming flat.”

No such concern yet for Brian, the hard-charging salesman who is so secretive that his mortgage broker associates have no idea he toils 9 to 5 at another job, he says.

It’s a living — twice over. But, sighs Brian, “It’s really tough.” CNN.COM

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U. S. studies show insurance carriers and brokerages are paying each of their employees roughly US$6,000 a year to perform non-work-related tasks on the Internet.
By: Chris Borchert, Business Development Executive, IPrevision, Inc.

Do you know if your employees are planning their next vacation, paying their bills online, or chatting with their friends about plans for the weekend? In many insurance agencies and brokerages, the answer to that question is “No.”

The Internet has grown to be as necessary within the work environment as a computer or a telephone; yet many insurance brokerages and carriers don’t have any tools in place to manage exactly how their employees are using the Internet. Of course, most employees are not driving to the office each morning thinking about how to waste time on the Internet. But it has grown to be an enormous distraction right at their fingertips, and time can quickly get away from them. An employee can sit down at his or her desk, check the weather forecast, look at the local news Web site, pay a few bills online, write a few e-mails to friends and, before he or she realizes it, it’s 10:00 am and no work has been done. Without having a policy in place and an Employee Internet Monitoring (EIM) solution implemented within the office, your organization is losing valuable productivity and putting the brokerage and insurance company at risk.

CONSEQUENCES OF KILLING TIME

America Online and Salary.com recently performed a study across various industries to determine the difference between how much time employees actually wasted at work and how much time management believed those employees were wasting. The study found that employees were wasting about twice as much time as the employers suspected, with non-work-related Internet use being the Number 1 distraction by an overwhelming margin. Results also showed the insurance industry ranked first in employee Internet abuse — at 1.1 hours per day per employee! In the United States, that amounted to an average of almost US$6,000 annually in lost productivity per employee because of personal Internet usage alone. Loss of productivity is one of the issues associated with EIM, but minimizing risks and threats to the organization is a key component as well.

Surfing the net increases the organization’s risks of being infected with viruses or spam; it also carries with it the threat of potential litigation. An EIM tool is not intended to replace your virus or anti-spam software, but it will drastically improve the overall protection of your network because the company will have the ability to block or restrict access to areas of the Internet where these threats reside. If employees have unrestricted access to the Internet connection, your agency or brokerage might also be exposed to various liabilities. As an example, a company in Arizona was fined more than US$1 million dollars because employees illegally downloaded music on their office computers. In another example, a company in New Jersey lost a lawsuit because it did not address issues with an employee viewing pornographic Web sites on the network. These risks and threats are real and need to be taken seriously. Other areas of abuse and potential risks come from your internal e-mail system (i. e. Exchange, Lotus Notes, etc.), personal e-mails (Web-mail) such as Yahoo!, Gmail, or Hotmail and Instant Messaging use.

One main concern about personal Web-mail usage is that it is hard to know how much an employee is using it and what is being communicated in those messages. Is an employee using those accounts to communicate with friends and family? Or could they be using their personal Web-mail account to send out client or proprietary information? There are numerous stories of organizations finding out that one of their employees was getting ready to leave the agency or brokerage and was communicating with a competitor or sending resumes from their personal accounts while being paid by their current employer. Without an EIM tool in place to monitor the quantity and content of these messages, or block the usage of these Web-mail tools altogether, this type of abuse can easily occur.

Instant Messaging use has also rapidly increased over the last few years, in part due to its ease of use and also because it is difficult for employers to monitor or record the activity. Instant Messaging protocols such as Yahoo!,AOL and MSN carry the same risks associated with e-mail abuse, but they have the additional negative potential of virus propagation. More than 40% of the top viruses can be received and sent through IM protocols; without an EIM solution to monitor or block IM, your brokerage may be at an elevated risk.

INTERNET MONITORING SOLUTIONS

Most carrier/brokerage owners or managers don’t want to be viewed as “Big Brother” and shut down the Internet completely from their employees. But to avoid the topic entirely is asking for trouble. The solution to this management dilemma is to implement a flexible EIM solution that fits your organization and creates the type of Internet culture you desire. One area of confusion often expressed relates to the difference between an EIM solution and the blocking capabilities that firewalls provide. Some firewalls allow for complete blocking of sites and non-browser-based applications (such as instant messaging software) for the entire organization. Complete blocking at the firewall level is often much too restrictive and difficult to manage in a dynamic business environment. A good EIM tool will give you the flexibility to allow access to certain sites, categories of sites, or non-browser-based applications at the individual, group or organization level, allowing employees with various job roles to have the proper levels of Internet access.

There are three main types of EIM tools: desktop software, server-based software and a network appliance.

Desktop software products are applications installed and maintained on every workstation within the organization. This type of solution usually carries a low initial implementation cost. However, this solution will become more difficult to manage as the organization grows and increases the number of its workstations. Reporting is generally done from the same computer on which the data is collected; as a result, it may be difficult to run reports on a particular employee while he or she is working. Lastly, software bugs and incompatibilities with agency-specific applications can pose problems with installation and management.

Server software products are applications loaded on a new or existing server attached and integrated into the network. This solution scales well for most businesses and allows for centralized management of all desktop clients and reporting. This solution might increase costs, however, due to the need for supporting hardware or software; software bugs and incompatibilities with

existing agency software applications might make implementation difficult. Also, this solution (as opposed to a network appliance solution) carries with it the risk of changing the performance of your network because there is a requirement for an underlying operating system.

Network appliance products include everything in a single unit. With a network appliance, such as iPrevision’s Panoptech device, there is no software to load on either a server or the individual workstations, nor is there a need for any additional hardware. This solution generally demonstrates the best performance because the hardware and software combination are dedicated to performing only those functions needed to optimally execute a unique set of tasks. Once installed, there is minimal technical management required. This type of solution scales extremely well for organizations of all sizes and provides centralized management and reporting. A network appliance can be so easy to use that it pushes the reporting and management of the carrier or broker’s Internet use to its proper place — i. e. owners and/or managers.

SUMMARY

The Internet is a necessary tool for all agencies and brokerages to run effectively, but many risks are associated with employees’ abuse of the Internet. Personal Internet usage should be a privilege within an organization. In order to maximize corporate performance, owners or managers need an EIM solution in place to monitor and manage exactly how the Internet is — and should be — used.

The sensitive nature of Internet usage requires that any EIM solution implemented must provide management with the necessary tools to view Internet activity, whether at a corporate, managerial or individual level, in real time and within a secure environment.

The key question for any agency or brokerage is this: Can your insurance company or brokerage afford to pay each employee US$6,000 per year for non-productive Internet usage, or is it time to look at a solution?

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An employer must carefully administer the actions of his or her employees for several reasons. Under New York law, it is well settled that under the doctrine of respondeat superior, an employer may be vicariously liable for the acts of its employees only if those acts were committed in furtherance of the employer’s business and within the scope of employment. N.X. v. Cabrini Medical Center, 97 N.Y.2d 247, 739 N.Y.S.2d 348 (2002).

However, with the internet on the desktops of most workers, employers must deal with the consequences of what their employees might be doing. The latest issue concerns what to do if an employer learns that an employee has been viewing illegal items on the employer’s computer. A New Jersey Court has ruled on that issue and that ruling has raised the rule of “employer beware.” The case of Jane Doe v. XYZ Corporation, 887 A.2d 1156 (N.J. 2005) discusses the rather novel issue of what potential liability employers face when employees use office computers to view pornographic, improper material at work.

A RECENT NEW JERSEY CASE

On June 21, 2001, an accountant for a New Jersey employer (called XYZ Corporation in the lawsuit) was arrested on child pornography charges. A police investigation prior to the arrest at the employee’s company showed that the employee had stored nude pictures of underaged girls, including pornographic images of his ten year old stepdaughter. Moreover, the employee’s website viewing history showed the employee had visited sites called “Young First Nude 13 to

17 years old” and “Incest Taboo.” Jane Doe, supra.

The stepdaughter’s mother sued XYZ Corporation based in negligence. The mother claimed that the employer knew or should have known that the accountant employee was using company computer systems to view, download and participate in child pornography.

The mother also alleged that the employer had a duty to report its employee to the proper authorities for crimes committed on its property during work hours. The suit claimed that because it had not made such a report, the employer had breached its duty. The complaint also alleged that the employee was able to continue molesting his stepdaughter, causing further harm, because the employer failed to report him. In terms of damages, the mother sought to recoup the cost of her daughter’s care and treatment related to the molestation.

The New Jersey Appellate Court found that by not fully investigating the employee’s prohibited activity, the company was exposed to negligence claims. The Court explained: “The defendant’s Network Administrator testified that he was able to use the network’s daily log system to isolate and identify pornographic websites visited by Employee. However, he did not pen any specific sites and, after reporting his findings to his supervisor, was instructed not to investigate Employee’s internet usage again.” Jane Doe, supra.

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By Steve Anderson

It’s hard to imagine running an insurance agency today without being able to use the Internet. Rating policies, communicating with underwriters and clients, and downloading electronic documents from carriers are all examples of how we have come to depend on this tool. But useful tools can also have downsides — and the Internet is no different.

For many years, I didn’t think monitoring employee use of the Internet was a good idea.  I thought people needed to be encouraged to experiment with the Internet and learn how to use it in unique and innovative ways. By now, most people are familiar with how to use the Internet, and the time has come to consider monitoring usage.

Why monitor?

First, there are legal obligations. It’s important to protect against the spread of clients’ personal information outside the agency and to make sure inappropriate material is not viewed or accessed by employees. These legal obligations are real and if not met, can cause significant problems for agency management.  Then, there’s “cyberslacking,” which is defined as personal use of the Internet during work hours. It is so common that the Oxford Dictionary of English now recognizes the term.

Perhaps one of the top reasons any agency should monitor Internet use is to protect (or at least identify) information that is being sent outside the agency.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Pat Kellner

In Arizona, a small company is fined $1 million dollars for employees illegally downloading music at the office.
* In New Jersey, a company is sued for not actively addressing an issue with an employee’s known online pornography problem.
* An identity theft ring used Instant Message (IM) to successfully recruit healthcare employees and steal confidential information.
*
These actual events could easily happen at any insurance agency across the country at any time. The Internet has evolved into a great collaboration tool as it allows us to quickly communicate with clients, carriers, vendors, etc. Unfortunately, it also poses serious risks to your business. Do you know if your employees are spending more time entering information on carrier Web sites or planning their next vacation? Worse yet, are they behaving illegally and putting your agency at risk? These nefarious users are using agency equipment and you could be liable if you do nothing about it.

The Business Issue

What should you be on the lookout for? First, it is important to know that the insurance industry is ranked first when it comes to using the Internet for personal use. Being ranked number one does not mean you should run out and buy all your employees those big foam “We’re #1″ gloves you see at sporting events. It means you need to take this seriously and get in front of this important business issue. Let’s explore some of the common abuses and risks.

The most common forms of abuse lead to a loss in productivity. This can also be labeled as stealing time. If you are paying people to work 8 hours per day, you expect to get that, right? A study by America Online and Salary.com found that insurance personnel waste 2.5 hours per day on non-work related activities—with personal Internet use being the main distraction. The interesting thing about this study is that it measured the difference between how much time Human Resources and senior management assumed employees were wasting and actual time being wasted. Senior management has an expectation that employees are not productive 100% of the time but to see that the actual time spent was twice what was anticipated was eye-opening. That represents an average of $6,000 per year/per employee for work that is expected but not performed. That figure is on par with the cost of an employee health plan and we certainly hear a lot of complaining about those rising costs.

While most employees are not stealing time intentionally, you can be assured that abuse of this magnitude is occurring in your office. Many business owners or managers I deal with roll their eyes at this point as they realize the only way to deal with the issue is to become, dare I say, Big Brother.

I like to use a simple analogy for these agency managers. We all know employees take home a package of sticky notes, copy paper, pen, pencils, etc. every once in awhile. But, if you knew you had an employee taking home a $7 stapler every day, would you do something about it? Sure you would. Then why wouldn’t you do something about someone stealing time that has a far greater negative impact on your bottom line?

Loss of productivity is only one of the business issues associated with employee Internet monitoring. Here are examples of other threats found in recent studies;

50% of employees admit to receiving inappropriate material at work
* Just under 15% admit to using the employers network to download pirated music, movies, games and other software
* 26% of IT employees admit to sending confidential info to others outside of the company via the network
* 45% admit to using Web-mail regularly from open company systems
*
Surfing the net also increases your risks of being infected with viruses, spam, etc. An Employee Internet Monitoring (EIM) product will not replace your virus or anti-spam software but it will improve your overall protection because your employees will not be surfing areas of the net that typically house and distribute these types of security threats, and if needed, you can block many areas of the Internet where these threats lurk.

Another major area of abuse is in the area of e-mail—in the form of your internal e-mail system (Exchange, etc) or use of their personal e-mail (Web-mail) such as Hotmail, or Yahoo. One of the challenges with personal Web-mail is knowing what is being communicated. This is one feature you will want to make sure you have when looking for an EIM solution. You should be able to block Web-mail products from being used or monitor the content of the messages. If there is any suspicion of abuse, you need a tool to see what is going on.

Are your employees spending more time communicating with their friends?

Or even worse, are they sending critical information such as social security numbers, credit card numbers and other confidential information to an identity theft ring?

Could a producer who is planning to leave your agency be sending a competitor x-dates, policy information, etc. via their personal e-mail?

Another area to be concerned with is the use of Instant Messaging, e.g. AOL instant messenger, Yahoo, MSN, etc. Abuse of IM carries many of the same issues as e-mail but with a few more—40% of the top viruses are capable of propagation through IM applications. IM content is also very difficult to monitor or record by most EIM products.

Until recently, you could only communicate IM protocol to IM protocol, e.g. Yahoo! to Yahoo! Now, Instant Messaging allows you to communicate with other products; an individual using a Yahoo Messenger can now communicate with individuals using the Microsoft Live IM product. This is the type of event that can ignite the growth of the overall IM network and number of individuals who use it.

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Nick Oliver

My search for the Holy Grail of Internet filtering/security products has ended. Over the past few years I have struggled with trying to find the right products for my clients—they rely on me for advice ranging from workflows to hardware implementation. The most common thing I’ve been obliged to consult on is Internet access for employees. You see, while most agencies need to have their employees connected to the Internet to transact business, most do not understand the ramifications of allowing unfettered access. Because of this, I’m always researching and suggesting products to attack various parts of the larger Internet problem. I’ve suggested and deployed things such as SurfControl, and Websense, ISA Server, or big brother type software such as Spector Pro. All of these have their benefits, but they also come with the need to have in-depth product knowledge. They also take a bit of time (and in some cases additional equipment) to deploy. In search of the ultimate product, I was talking with a friend who said he had something that runs on Unix (free!) that can do most of what I was looking for—I was intrigued.

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Popularity: 31% [?]

By Michael A. Gold and Jim D. Bauch (TARR)

It’s 10:00 a.m. Do you know where — in cyberspace — your employees are?  An increasing number of companies are turning to monitoring software to find out. A 2004 survey by the American Management Association found that 60% of companies use some type of software to monitor their employees’ incoming and outgoing e-mail — an increase from the 47% who did so in 2001.

The monitoring software available on the market today is capable of keeping tabs on more than just e-mail. Employers can obtain reports on Web sites visited, as well as monitor or simply block the operation of instant messaging programs, spyware, filesharing software, keyloggers, and other security threats.

Should you monitor your employees’ Internet use?

You may not need much convincing of the practical benefits of monitoring your employees’ use of the Internet. “Cyberslacking” — personal use of the Internet during work hours — is so common that the Oxford Dictionary of English now recognizes the term. Your IT department has probably had to contend with viruses and other malicious code spread through employee downloads, e-mails, and, most recently, instant messaging.  There’s also a good chance that on at least one occasion your network has slowed to a crawl while nearly everyone in the company viewed that “cute” animation that someone helpfully forwarded to all of his or her co-workers.

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Popularity: 34% [?]

Originally By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer

Thu Jul 26, 12:56 AM ET

NEW YORK – One in five online Americans view video over the Internet on any given day, thanks to speedier Internet connections and a wider selection of clips, a study finds.

On a typical day, 19 percent of U.S. Internet adults watch some form of video. News ranked first and comedy second overall.

Mary Madden, a senior research specialist at Pew, said news outlets, among the first to deliver online video, had an “early mover advantage” and got people comfortable with the idea of using the Internet for video.

But the rapid rise of the video-sharing site YouTube, which Google Inc. bought in November, drew many younger viewers. Half of video viewers ages 18-29 watch clips on YouTube, and about 15 percent cite News Corp.’s MySpace. Only 7 percent turn to a cable or network TV site.

Young adults also are more likely to send video links to friends and family and to watch online video in groups.

Those in the 18-29 age group are also more likely to have paid for video access at some point — but that’s still only 10 percent of online video viewers in that group, slightly more than the 7 percent across all age groups.

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According to the 2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey from American Management Association (AMA) and The ePolicy Institute, from e-mail monitoring and Website blocking to phone tapping and GPS tracking, employers increasingly combine technology with policy to manage productivity and minimize litigation, security, and other risks. To motivate compliance with rules and policies, more than one fourth of employers have fired workers for misusing e-mail and nearly one third have fired employees for misusing the Internet.

“Concern over litigation and the role electronic evidence plays in lawsuits and regulatory investigations has spurred more employers to monitor online activity. Data security and employee productivity concerns also motivate employers to monitor Web and e-mail use and content,” said Nancy Flynn, executive director of The ePolicy Institute.

“To help control the risk of litigation, security breaches and other electronic disasters, employers should take advantage of monitoring and blocking technology to battle people problems—including the accidental and intentional misuse of computer systems and other electronic resources,” Flynn said.

Popularity: 31% [?]

Yorba Linda, CA – As insurance professionals well know, economic conditions significantly impact employment-related claims and lawsuits.  Employment Practices Liability (EPL) claims today are at their highest level since 2002.  Discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and other related employee claims have increased by double digits since 2006.  EPL is now one of the bigger, and more costly, potential risks faced by both large and small employers.

Recently, there has been an increase in a slightly different type of claim which arises from employees being counseled or discharged due to lack of productivity. Specifically due to excessive personal use of the internet while at work.

Heidi Duncan of Duncan & Associates Insurance Brokers describes her particular EPL situation that was handled with the help of the iPrevision solution.

“We had an employee in one of our branch offices who did several things we caught and were able to document.  First, she was on the internet playing quite a bit.  Second, we found that she was sending out job applications and resumes using our computer system during her work time.  The final straw was, after being reprimanded for these, and told that any further incidents would result in her being dismissed, she actually went to her manager’s computer when the manager wasn’t there and was doing exactly the same thing.  Unfortunately for her I was training her manager at that exact time on how to use iPrevision so the manager of the branch was standing right next to me.  The employee was dismissed the next morning.  The employee then attempted to file several claims.  Wrongful termination being the first one.  Then with the state she said she was let go for “lack of work” and because of “unreasonable demands”.  I was able to thoroughly disprove all of this so simply and easily.  No stress, no problems.  She went away very quietly after hearing about what I was able to print out and document.  Both the insurance company and the State of Washington Employment Security Department were very impressed with the internet security solution I had in place.  Little did I know that I would get a discount on my Employment Related Practices Liability Insurance for having this system in place.”

Lori Bennett from Protectors Insurance of Medford, Oregon, was able to take the information learned from the Duncan & Associates case and also obtain a credit on her EPLI policy.

“I had read the testimonial from Heidi Duncan Yonkers from Duncan and Associates and decided to check and see if Protectors would qualify for a credit.  Protectors Insurance is an iPrevision User, so I talked to my EPLI Agent through our local IIABO and described how iPrevision works to mitigate the risk internally and submitted the necessary paperwork.  Our agent came back with a 9% or $185.00 credit on our EPL policy for having iPrevision installed.  iPrevision is not only a powerful business tool, but now it is saving the agency money with our EPL coverage.”

The internet continues to change the dynamic in the workplace.  Most of the time it has a positive impact but in a tough economy it is likely to increase the real exposure businesses face from some ill-intentioned employees.  Employee allegations of sexual harassment, job discrimination, wrongful termination, mental anguish and emotional distress have been claims against employers for a long time.  The introduction of the internet has given each of these exposures a slightly new twist.  It is clear that a powerful tool that employers can use to mitigate these risks is the deployment of an Employee Internet Management System (EIMS) product such as the one used by Duncan and Associates and Protectors Insurance.

Popularity: 58% [?]