Employees, who smoke in prohibited places, abuse sick leave or play games on their computers at work may be laid off without compensation.

Turkey's labor laws not only provide important rights to employees but also hand down some responsibilities. With an increase in the use of social media and computer games, new regulations are to be introduced and it will be important for employees to pay attention to the development, not only to protect the workplace but also their own interests.

Given business relations are different from all other legal relations it has been the subject of a special branch of law, the Labor Law. In employer-employee relations, some particular behavior by the employer or employee can become the cause for a termination of work relation. Employees and employers alike often do not realize that a small behavior can have such great consequences.

For instance, using the internet for the wrong purposes at the workplace, or smoking in a prohibited space, posts on social media, or inappropriate behaviors at a workplace program can leave the employee without a contract. Depending on the frequency and severity of the behavior, the employee may even be laid off without any compensation.

The basis of business relation in the workplace is the fulfillment of the duties assigned by the employer. Therefore, the employee is obliged to fulfill the given assignment.

Though, it is more difficult to detect whether the employee is playing games on his/her mobile phone than on the company computer, if the employee continues to do so despite pervious warnings, termination without compensation may become likely.

According to Okan Güray Bülbül's report on Turkish daily Akşam, using the workplace computer to play games during work hours can lead the employee to lose his/her job. As a matter of fact, the Court of Appeals has already ruled in favor of the decision to terminate jobs without paying compensation. The act can be regarded as an abuse of trust the employer has put on an employee.

Similar fate can come to workers who are on sick leave, but are observed, especially on social media to be spending their time otherwise.

Employees may also lose their jobs if they are found using negative expressions about their company on social media. Criticizing beyond the limits of criticism and using negative expressions about the company may put the employees in a difficult position.