Forced to accept trolling - what protection does an employee have?

[Charlie505]

I would appreciate some advice on the duties of employers for staff welfare in the digital age. I know a young man who works for a major gaming organisation and is responsible for managing/developing a popular online game including liaison with the online community of users. He lives alone on very low pay and works very long hours. In return he gets daily abuse from users of the game all over the world - dozens of vile, personal and threatening comments every day. As you might expect this becomes a heavy psychological burden - but the attitude seems to be that stopping it is too difficult and that it goes with the territory if you are in the online gaming world.

Does an employer have any duty of care towards an employee in situations like this? Sure there is some rough and tumble to online forums but it strikes me that expecting employees to take this sort of abuse will not be acceptable in the future, even if it is at the present.

Anyone have any thoughts about what if anything can be done - and what should be expected of the employer? Many thanks.

[Tools]

Re: Forced to accept trolling - what protection does an employee have?

An employer does have a duty of care to prevent exposure to bullying and harassment.

A simple suggestion would be to give him the facility to remove/block any such messages with the possibility of a 3 strikes you're out message being sent to the culprits.

Have a read of this publication and come back with any further questions

[Johnboy007]

Re: Forced to accept trolling - what protection does an employee have?

Policing the internet is extremely hard.
An employer does have a duty of care to do all that is REASONABLE to protect his employee.
That is the bug-bare, the word reasonable.
Three strikes and out is OK, but it is so easy to change your IP address, and thus make it near impossible for an employer to do anything.
The employee should consider changing his job, as it appears the employer is taking the P*** in expecting his employee to be paid peanuts, and put up with all the crap he does.
JB

[Tools]

Re: Forced to accept trolling - what protection does an employee have?

Changing IP is one thing, but if the account holder has an account - as this is an online gaming community - it would be banning/removing the account, something the user would be a little more protective of losing.

To give an example based on this forum, if for example ( and I'm sure you wouldn't Johnboy ) you were to harass another member, each time being given a strike, you would lose all previous messages, reputation, post count etc that go with your account. Yes you could create another account and start again, but would the hassle be worth it knowing your email address, IP and other details would have to be altered to access?

[Johnboy007]

Re: Forced to accept trolling - what protection does an employee have?

I can see where you're coming from Tools, but it is so easy to set up as many email addresses as needed, and IP addresses are no problem what-so-ever.
I think the problem lies with the fact that all this is easy to set up.
So for an employer or owner of a web site to police the internet satisfactory, would be almost impossible.
I could change my IP address at the click of a button.
Email addresses are ten a penny and to expect owners of LB (as an example) to be able to trace and guarantee that I would not be able to pop up somewhere else, is not feasible.
Whoever is sending the comments to the young man, could easily set up a new account so that he could continue to play the game. And a false account/s to continue sending the comments.
Seems to me that the young man should have extra training in dealing with this sort of thing, and extra money for putting up with it.
He should also be made aware, that unless the troublemakers have his personal details, such as home address. They cannot hurt him other than mentally, if he lets them.
It's just like cyber bullying, the bully only has power if the victim allows him/her too.
:tinysmile_twink_t2:

[Tools]

Re: Forced to accept trolling - what protection does an employee have?

Yes I know emails and IP's are easily changed, but believe me Johnboy, I can tell if I need to, there are lots of other ways that I won't go into as I use these methods for the eBay etc scammers too.

[Charlie505]

Re: Forced to accept trolling - what protection does an employee have?

Firstly I must apologise for not responding much earlier - but thank you very much for your comments on this post - much appreciated. Very difficult situaiton and I expect it will be one of those situations that occur in new industries where the technology has run ahead of employment practices.

Thanks very much indeed