Everybody uses company resources for personal gain. If we got no gain from working: we wouldn't work. The only difference is that this gain creates a zero-sum game in which the company is at a loss.
Everybody uses company resources for personal gain.
Everybody uses company resources for the company gains. Only. In the end of the month, the company pays you something called 'salary'. You use the salary as you want. That's your gain. And your only gain. (Okay, may be bonuses, equity...)
Change your tone: I'm sure we all understand the concept of 'salary'. :)
I don't think that's our only gain from working at a company. Working at a company (1) gives you experience working on projects that you might not be able to get without the required trust in your personal brand, (2) socialises you with technical people from your discipline, and (3) increases your job security.
I particularly consider (2) very important. Of course, you can quit your job and create as startup, but: you're creating risk for yourself and there are things which companies provide employees which have to be built over time.
Well, anyone who looks at Facebook or reads their email at work is technically misusing company resources. But when smokers take a 15 minute break every hour, I think a company who fired you for poking someone would find itself staring down the wrong end of a tribunal.
I think that comes down to expectations. If an employer decides that Facebook is a distraction, communicates with staff that the site will be blocked, AND an employee hacks around the block in order to access the site - that could be a dismissal offence (more likely a warning, but if it's part of repeated behaviour...). Compare that to the (albeit, sadly, probably more likely) scenario that you are probably referring to - a boss deciding he wants to sack someone and using Facebook use, which the business has never actually defined one way or the other, as a reason - and yes, that's a silly business move.
