Seriously, workplace pornmongers, the porn can wait until you're home

May 06, 2011, 7:15 AM — It's like this: There's work, and there's porn. And never the twain should meet.

The twain especially should not meet on a computer owned by your employer, because it could mean your job.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago on Friday upheld the dismissal of a Wisconsin high school teacher who looked at porn pictures online after doing a Google search on a school computer.

(Also see: Woman fired for bashing boss on Facebook settles suit)

Robert Zellner taught biology and also was president of the Cedarburg Education Association. He claims his firing was in retaliation for his work heading the teachers' union, and not because (as described by Courthouse News Service):

On Sunday in November 2005, while Zellner was at school working on a class plan, he disengaged the "safe search" filter on a Google image search and typed in "blonde." The search produced 20 pornographic thumbnails and links to more images. Zellner then viewed the next page of results, and after that clicked a link from a site that advertised "more of these," producing another 20 thumbnail images. Pornographic images remained on Zellner's screen for a total of 67 seconds.

Unfortunately for Zellner, he had signed the school district's Internet-usage policy, which, CNS reports, prevents "accessing, sending or displaying offensive messages, pictures or child pornography" on school computers (even, apparently, for just 67 seconds). That was enough for the appeals court to rule against him.

Zellner reportedly is considering taking his case all the way to the Supreme Court. But if he had exercised some common sense or restraint in the first place, he wouldn't be known these days as the "porn-viewing teacher," to quote the CNS headline.

This also must be said: You can't bring your best game at work if you're being distracted by porn. And let's face it, no matter how you feel about porn, it is distracting. So it's best for all concerned to keep it totally separate from your work life -- no porn "sandbox," nothing.

There are three lessons here:

1) Be aware of your company's Internet usage policy.

2) Even if you're not, assume that looking at porn is ill-advised.

3) Try to work from home on your own computer.