Quick test: Raise your hand if you’ve opened an e-mail with jokes or vidoes from a co-worker on company time. If both of your hands are still on the keyboard, you’re a part of the minority.

Okay, that’s not exactly a shocker. But the latest study by the American Management Association (AMA) and The ePolicy Institute has uncovered some startling numbers.

More than a quarter of employers have fired employees for misusing e-mail and just over one-third have let workers go for abusing the Internet while on the clock.

Breaking down the numbers even further tells an even worse story:

• Of those fired for misusing the Internet, 66% got the axe for accessing porn or other “inappropriate content,” while 34% were let go for excessive personal use
• Sixty-two percent of e-mail abusers were offed because messages sent contained offensive or inappropriate language, and
• Just over 22% of e-mail related firings were because employees breached their companies’ confidentiality rules.

It’s supposed to be a boon for information gathering and sharing, so what’s with the mass of digital ne’er-do-wells violating company policy?

Your company may monitor Internet connections, but that doesn’t mean employees will believe it. Even though 66% of polled companies monitor their workers’ Internet traffic, people still abuse Web access. Letting workers know that your company archives and scans e-mails or uses a keystroke-recording program might help get the message across.

Of course, it may be a matter of degree — a company can have a policy in place that discourages using the Internet for “personal activities,” but is an employee who checks an outside e-mail account once a day that much of a drain on company resources? Twice a day? Five times a day? You’ll need to draw a clear line somewhere.

Don’t ask us about how the porn-at-work-surfer’s rationale functions, though. Employees trying to sneak that stuff in on company time probably have more important issues to worry about than how they’re going to stay productive.

Tags: AMA, Internet abuse, Web policy