Not sure what to do/delicate work situation

[frugalone]

I could use some advice, and if anyone is particularly good with computers, you might be able to help me.

I'll try to keep this brief:

Last semester, an administrator's son was hired to work in my library. He's kind of a screw-up. I don't want to go into the details b/c that would make this longer. We would all really like to see him leave, however.

He spends most of his shift at the circulation counter, which has two computers, one for the student workers and the other for a staff member (tho when there are 2 students working, one will end up on the staff terminal). My desk is behind and to the left of his. I happened to look up one evening, and noticed he was creating internet memes...using suggestive or "dirty" terms (hint: one of them had a picture of a chicken and was using a term for "rooster"). There were three or four of these created that evening. I recognized this could be sexual harassment (esp. since the student workers can see this screen, or, what if they are looking through the browser history and stumble on it?). I was very shaken. I talked to my husband about the institution's sexual harassment policy, and out of some sort of misguided pity (this particular employee is said to have mental health issues), I decided not to do anything unless I saw something really obscene going on.

In the meantime, I check the browser history every few days. Today, I took a look. When I saw the name of a strange-looking site, I clicked 'expand' on the history. A bunch of titles came up, some of them using the f-word, one had the word vibrator...you get the picture. I took a risk and opened one of them. The top of the site had photos of half naked girls, one of whom was holding her breasts in both hands. Well, I'm sure you know what I mean. I don't think visiting these sites is appropriate at work, needless to say.

I do have screenshots of the dirty memes from a couple months ago. I figured if I went to my boss I would be able to tell him "I actually saw Employee X" creating these." However, I don't know how to prove that these pages were visited by X b/c I can't get a time signature on them. There's a way in Explorer to click on Properties and see "last visited"--but what that is giving me is the current time and date.

Do you know how I can get a screenshot or something proving it's him that's visiting these sites? We don't have to log on to these computers, unfortunately. There's a really nasty side to me that wants to nail this guy so we can finally have a legit reason to get him moved to another department. I know that's not nice, but it's also not right that he should be getting away with it.

Should I just keep watching him, in the event I see him on a site showing obscene pictures? I mean, I don't feel like keeping an eye on this guy for two-three hours a day, you know? Should I show my boss the memes? He might say, "Why did you wait this long to tell me?" I also do not feel comfortable confronting X myself (since he has Friends in High Places).

Thank you for listening. I feel very conflicted about this.

[nswef]

OH, I think you need to show the screen shot you have of the memes to whoever deals with harrassement. I cannnot help you with the technology, but my gut reaction is "tell somebody!"

[iris lily]

Here's the deal: if you are the employee's supervisor, you are getting paid to "confront" him. I don't know if you are officially his supervisor or not. Either way, someone in authority must tell the employee that you have seen him

*crafting sexually suggestive, inappropriate web material
*surfing sexually suggestive, inappropriate web material

...and it needs to stop.

If you are afraid that he will deny it, well, yes--most employees WILL deny it. That doesn't matter. You have to warn him. Make it official. It is your obligation (or the obligation of whomever is his direct report, or HR if the supervisor won't do it.) Then when he continues to do it, you are covered. He's gone. The end.

While it is nice to have absolute proof that this employees was viewing x website, it's not necessary. You saw him. That's all that is needed for a talk.

I have to assume that in addition to the sexual harassment issue, your institution has a policy against employees using the internet to access inappropriate websites.

[frugalone]

iris lily:
I am not his supervisor. He shouldn't even be on my shift. I was asked to train him months ago, and the presence of two staff members on this shift isn't even necessary. He was supposed to be working elsewhere in the building but he's such an idiot that they don't trust him to work unless they're in the same room with him.

I just cannot confront X personally with this information. I can't. I feel my only option is to go to HR or to our supervisor.

[iris lily]

iris lily:
I am not his supervisor. He shouldn't even be on my shift. I was asked to train him months ago, and the presence of two staff members on this shift isn't even necessary. He was supposed to be working elsewhere in the building but he's such an idiot that they don't trust him to work unless they're in the same room with him.

I just cannot confront X personally with this information. I can't. I feel my only option is to go to HR or to our supervisor.

If you aren't his supervisor you are off the hook. And believe me, if you've seen him, so have others. Tell HR. Then your conscious is clear.

[bae]

You are not The Police or Management. Don't get sucked into collecting evidence, spying on his browser history, or playing office drama games. Not your job, and it just makes you look bad too.

If it were me, and this were a younger inexperienced worker, I'd simply take them aside and provide some gentle instruction and guidance, and let them know this isn't acceptable office behavior, and if it happens again the hammer will drop.

Then if it happened again, I'd drop the hammer.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Not being management I would just mind my own business. It's not my job or business to get other people in trouble (plus is even your real gripe with him that he produces dirty memes at work - getting him in trouble for that when your actually angry at him for other things seems rather underhanded - better to bring up the real issues - he always drops the ball on his part of projects or whatever). If it is someone's real gripe of course legally it might be subject to sexual harassment considerations because it could be said to creates an uncomfortable (hostile) office environment.

[sweetana3]

I want to just add that I agree with the others. After working 31 years for the government, any type of whistleblower finds that "no good deed goes unpunished". You are not his supervisor.

[frugalone]

...or, no one likes a tattletale.

He's not that much younger. He's also married with a little kid. Old Enough to Know Better, as my mom always said. He's just a jackhole, quite frankly.

I figure sooner or later, he'll screw up badly enough on his own. Or someone else will find his internet history.

[Spartana]

I always think it's best to talk to the co-worker first before getting the bosses involved. Give them a chance to change their behavior before getting them in trouble. So I would just flatly tell him you saw he had looked at inappropriate websites and he needs to stop as other's can see what he views online. He may not even know they aren't appropriate for a work place - let alone a public library. Let him know that if he doesn't stop that you will report his behavior to the boss.

[Miss Cellane]

I used to be a student supervisor at the Circ desk in a university library. My computer was out back, not visible from the front desk. There were 2 hours every night when there were no staff at the desk, just students and some senior students with more training.

One day, I noticed something odd in my internet history. Clicked on it and it was a gay porn site. I had not visited this site.

Clearly, one or more of the students were taking the opportunity when there was no staff present to go out back and use our computers.

I immediately notified my supervisor, mostly because I didn't want someone else to find this site on my computer and bring down the wrath of HR on my head.

Within two weeks, all the individual staff computers required a password to log in. Some sort of "Net Nanny" software was installed on the computers at the front desk.

So there are ways to deal with this, both generally (we never figured out which student(s) were using staff computers), and specifically.

I'd take this matter to your supervisor. Tell him/her that you have two related matters to discuss. State calmly and matter-of-factly that you have evidence that students at the desk are surfing inappropriate-for-work websites. Then bring up the issue of the specific employee and the memes.

In the long run, it doesn't matter which student is visiting the websites. They are inappropriate for work computers and there is no need to be able to access such sites at the Circulation desk. The library should just take steps to prevent this.

If HR wants, they can monitor the situation to see if this one employee is doing the web surfing, and take it from there. It could be that this guy's supervisor is waiting for something that can be used to fire the guy. This might be their chance.

[Dhiana]

As Miss Celene says, "Net Nanny" type software. I'm surprised it doesn't already have it. Bring the history log to the attention of your supervisor, let them decide how to combat the issue.

Then it's out of your hands, no blaming anyone in particular.

[Lainey]

As Miss Celene says, "Net Nanny" type software. I'm surprised it doesn't already have it. Bring the history log to the attention of your supervisor, let them decide how to combat the issue.

Then it's out of your hands, no blaming anyone in particular.

+1

[Simplemind]

Bring it to the attention of the appropriate person ASAP. You don't need to say who you think it is or prove it, you just need to bring attention to it.

[iris lily]

I am not sure that academic libraries should be filtering web environments for the sole purpose of keeping university workers and students away from certain content. None of these users are minors. That seems overkill to me.

Seeing the OP's latest post, I agree that it is likely he will eventually screw up enough to hang himself.

[Miss Cellane]

I am not sure that academic libraries should be filtering web environments for the sole purpose of keeping university workers and students away from certain content. None of these users are minors. That seems overkill to me.

Seeing the OP's latest post, I agree that it is likely he will eventually screw up enough to hang himself.

At the university where I worked, the decision was that the banks of public use computers would not be filtered, as there might be legitimate academic research that required use of such websites--even though other patrons complained. And we did get complaints that other users were on porn sites and there was nothing we could do.

However, at the staff computers that were out at the public desks, where a patron might see what was on them, the decision was to install the "Net Nanny" type software, to avoid creating a "hostile environment" for the patrons and other staff. Not unlike many businesses that restrict the web browsing that their employees can do on company-owned computers, or block sites like Facebook.

Staff computers in offices and behind the scenes areas did not have the software installed, but did have software that required a password to log in installed, to protect the information on them. Those computers were linked to the Registrar's and Bursar's computer systems, so sensitive personal information on students and faculty and staff could be found on them.

If the students wanted to browse porn sites, they had computer rooms in their dorms, public use computers in the library and free wi-fi in the library if they brought a laptop and free cable internet in their dorm rooms. They did not have to be surfing those sites while being paid to work--getting to surf the web at all while working was a privilege. One that almost got taken away after the front desk computers were checked and it became apparent just how much web surfing they were doing while supposedly working.