Posting from work... [short rant]

[BlueBlackRed]

I've had the same issues at work.
They've blocked Hotmail, Yahoogroups, Wizards.com, ENWorld, and more.
So now I just bring in my jump drive and use that to plan my games.

I probably do even less now because they forced me to adapt.

And I can't forget to mention the nazi-esque IT guy who has a false sense of self-importance and superiority. You know the type.

 

[3catcircus]

Break is over!! Back on your heads!

Seriously, though - this is an issue that too many businesses don't know how to deal with. Rather than equate it to listening to the radio, they are more apt to treat it like television - something that completely occupies your time. However, it usually is not without cause - most people are willing to take a yard when given an inch...

OTOH, there are those businesses that have firewalls and proxy servers that treat certain sites as forbidden and inadvertently classify them and ban them. Our office banned the website of a local politician up for re-election, classifying his website as "providing criminal methods" or something similarly worded. Usually, though, the IT weenies make sure and allow "geek" sites to be accessed.

Funny - I can't go to the state lottery website (gambling) but I've no problem accessing slashdot at work...

 

[Endur]

I've read/seen some stories about companies that allow their employees total freedom to do whatever they want at work, come and go as they like, etc., as long as their milestones are met and the results meet expectations... and almost in every case those folks put in MORE hours than regular wage workers, and had higher productivity to boot.

This is true.

 

[Greylock]

It blows my mind that people can sit at work, surf, and GET PAID for it.

I post from home, and have never posted, lurked, or anything else from work. For eight or nine hours each day, I belong to my company. Every word I say, every breath I take, every...[/Sting song]

Work is work, play is play.

 

[Dracorat]

I'd say in any given week, I get about, uhhh,,, 15 minutes of actual real work done.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

 

[Shemeska]

It blows my mind that people can sit at work, surf, and GET PAID for it.

Because there's only so long per day that the experiments I've been running can take. Anything after that I'm frankly finished with that day's work, and beyond writing up the work in my notebook, random meetings, and reading a paper or two, I've got time on my hands. I figure if they don't hand me something to do outside of the project I've been handed on a silver platter along with a budget, I'm free to use the leftover time as I please (within reason). So typically some Enworld, WotC boards, and writing storyhour gets done every day.

But it really goes in cycles. My work is dependant on the schedule of human tissue we get shipped in from donors, and I've had weeks where I literally had nothing to do but sit in the office and get paid, and weeks where I was eating lunch in five minute gaps during centrifuge spin times, running between office and lab.

 

[Hussar]

Heck, sometimes my students are no shows, which means I've got a spare hour or so in my work day. Plus, there are often days when I have two or three hours between classes.

Then again, I own the school, so I'm paying myself to surf the net.

 

[Driddle]

Well folks. The corporate office has sunk to the lowest of lows. A new firewall screening program was installed this weekend and ENWorld forums are unreachable even during my official breaks...not to mention the un-official ones

Darn them! How can they enslave the working population to only focus on 'work' all day long!!! Its like they think they own the computers and pay for the network connection or something.

I really should protest. Maybe instead of reading ENWorld during lunch I will start reading my new RPG related books and Dragon Magazines instead.... HA! Thats taking it to the man!

You're not serious, are you?

 

[Sejs]

I've read/seen some stories about companies that allow their employees total freedom to do whatever they want at work, come and go as they like, etc., as long as their milestones are met and the results meet expectations... and almost in every case those folks put in MORE hours than regular wage workers, and had higher productivity to boot.

*nod* The natural reaction to being pushed is to resist, whereas one has a greater inclination to participate in a setting where they can identify themselves as being a valued part of. Deals with issues of respect and ownership. 'We' versus 'them and you', that sort of thing.

I post from home, and have never posted, lurked, or anything else from work. For eight or nine hours each day, I belong to my company

That's actually part of the issue. The underlying idea that your employer owns you. They don't own you. They are paying you to assist them in the operation of whatever it is they do. It's supposed to be a mutual relationship, equal on both sides.

However, then we get down to issues of dominance perception, and a primitive part of our brain kicks in because it sees the employer as huge and unfathomable and in control, so obviously it's dominant, and we're just hangers-on, keeping our heads low and occasionally getting scraps from the kill. We're entourage. We're property.

 

[Wik]

You're not serious, are you?

I'm pretty sure he's not. But then, I've been unable to hear sarcasm. It makes working with teenagers doubly hard, actually.

I'm in the same boat - I would never touch the internet at work, simply because I have one of those "work ethic" thingies that get in the way. (Not saying people who do hit the net, don't have ethics or anything...)

I think the only time I did hit the net was when I needed to buy john mayer concert tickets for my girlfriend... or that fun time I decided to show my boss the "tubgirl" site (ha ha.... I almost got fired, but he bookmarked the site)

I do play around on my laptop a lot in between classes at school, though - thank god we have wireless internet at the college! I get so much... um....

Yeah, I get nothing done.