Accountant with Internet Habit Gets Let off Hook

The World Wide Web is a wonderful source of knowledge, but excessive use of the internet during working hours can land you in big trouble…….or maybe not as the case may be. According to a story in this month’s Credit Management magazine, an Employment tribunal has awarded almost 40, 000 pounds to an accountant wrongly dismissed for excessive use of the internet. Bosses at the man’s employer Scottish and Southern Energy claimed he had been spending a ridiculous amount of time on the internet and had reached 27, 500 website hits. Apparently, the Employment Tribunal ended up ruling in the employee’s favour, as the basis for the accountant’s dismissal was an IT report on his internet use that the company had “no idea” how to interpret. Managers should have asked their IT colleagues for advice before taking action against the accountant in question the Employment Tribunal argued.
It would appear that HR decisions can sometimes be just as risky as credit management ones!