An interesting article on MSNBC reports that a New York City Judge has ruled that surfing the Internet at work is not a fireable offence. The plantiff in the case was a New York Department of Education employee who had ignored instructions from his supervisors to stop browsing the Internet. They don’t mention how much time he spent web surfing, only the types of sites he surfed. The other interesting point is, they get his browsing history from his computer, not from the web filtering software (which I would imagine every government office should have).

Judges ruling:

In his decision, Spooner wrote: “It should be observed that the Internet has become the modern equivalent of a telephone or a daily newspaper, providing a combination of communication and information that most employees use as frequently in their personal lives as for their work.”

He added: “For this reason, city agencies permit workers to use a telephone for personal calls, so long as this does not interfere with their overall work performance. Many agencies apply the same standard to the use of the Internet for personal purposes.”

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