Many businesses permit their employees to use their computers at work for personal use.  Some say this is a benefit; others say, well, it can't cost that much.  The point is many businesses do not have a clear understanding of how much this “benefit” is costing their business in support dollars and lost productivity.

It has been said that the majority of personal purchases made on the Internet are made at work.  So, if the person spends one hour a day surfing the Internet for personal use, that is five hours a week, 20 hours a month, or 240 hours a year of lost productivity. If their hourly rate is $35 that is $8,400 ($35 times 240 hours)

From a technical support perspective, personal e-mail use and surfing websites can lead to an increase in viruses and spyware on workstations. Software downloads of items such as screensavers that people just must have on their computer can result in security breaches and/or  slower computer response time. Technical support time for maintenance to fix a problem can vary from one hour to a few days.

So what should you do?  Consider putting a policy in place that clearly defines the proper use company resources and make sure your employees understand the policy.  You may also want to prevent unwanted downloads to your network and/or consider blocking access to specific websites.