Termination

jferret

Hello all. I have an employee who is the night Security guard. We are a assisted living community as well as having a 30 bed health center. The problem started that he was using the computer while on company time. When a employee loged on in the a.m. and went into the internet a virus message appeared as well as a inappropriate web site drop down. We approached him and asked him if he was on the computer and then on this site. He said he was on the computer but did not go into inappropriate sites. He then informed me that he was going to school for computers and about to graduate. We called out computer support to see what sites he was on to find out that he went into the system and deleted all information. He does not have the authority to do this. He is altering company property. We want to terminate him how can we trust him being night security and going into the system and deleting information. He could cause alot of trouble. My concern is do we have enough infor with this. I am going with We cannot not find out who was indeed on the computer because he deleted all information for a period of 10 hours. He has mishandled machine and equipment. Do you think we have enough?

JF

Trinity

You said the employee "logged" on is that correct? Than am I correct to assume that employees need a log in password to access the network? If so then you should be able to at least prove he was on the computer during the 10 hours by his log in password.I don't think he can erase that, even if he was able to erase the content of what he looked at. I would give him a warning and tell him to stay off the computer COMPLETELY. This way, if he did it again, you can fire him for just being on the equipment without having to know what he was looking at. Of course if you are an at-will state, I think you could let him go without all this, especially if he is new and in a trial period..even better.

ladyzuesse

Yes, I think you have enough for termination if he violated a computer use policy by using the machine - however, based on what you have written, he did not "alter" the machine, he cleared the cache files and deleted the history (a copy of all websites visited in a particular period) which is actually a very common practice and part of routine maintenance within a browser that anyone can do - it requires no special knowledge.On a windows based machine it is virtually impossible to completely delete anything.

If he's getting a degree in computer science and is currently your night security guard, depending on where you are located, he's probably working there to get through school and will be looking for a position in the field. Maybe consider utilizing his talents to improve the security of your computer systems?

just a thought.

Tammy

jimlegal

Our policy strictly states that using company computers inappropriately, such as accessing non approved websites is cause for immediate termination. That being said, he needs to go!

Theresa Gegen TX

It is not easy to erase a computer trail. Your inhouse people may not be able to recover what occured, but I would be that an outside source (foresenic computer experts) could recover the data and see what the employee did.