Listen to this, you guys!

[daner94]

All of a sudden I cannot access this site between the hours of 8 am- 5pm at work! When I try to access it this screen pops up and says, this is under "hobbies" and can be accessed after 5 pm today!

The nerve of these people!!!! Don't they know I need my fix?

http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[jazzcat]

Don't they beleive in "Lunch" ? The nerve.
Especially if you don't get paid for that time!!!!!!!!!

[emilycat]

That's so obnoxious! I think that might be enough to make me switch companies! (Well, maybe.... http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif )

[Kristilyn1]

One must keep in mind that any company that uses this type of blocking program is more than likely monitoring email and have been monitoring internet usage and discovered abuse that lead them to do this.

While personally--I hate that kind thing--if I owned a company I would probably use a program like that as well.

Kristi

[Beth H]

Surfing the web for a few minutes is the coffee break of the 21st century! No one can work 8 hours straight without little breaks -- if it's not the Web, it's going to be going to get a soda, talking on the phone to a friend, or daydreaming. I'm sorry your bosses are so uptight!

[makedah]

You know what this means. Someone at daner's job has been surfing porn sites...

[SandyM]

Porn sites?? Could be.......but not necessarily. Our company blocked e-bay, for crying out loud.......

[funnybone]

Originally posted by makedah:
You know what this means. Someone at daner's job has been surfing porn sites...

LOL - probably. I'm sure it's not daner94's CL surfing that is causing them to curb internet use, but somebody else's abuse. I can't say I disagree with the decision. I used to work at a place years ago where we didn't have the internet, but the manager was playing "Free Cell" most of the day. When we'd go into his office, he'd quickly shut the computer off, but he wasn't quick enough. It really ticked us off that he was doing this. We worked our butts off, and he was goofing off.

They own the computer and the internet access rights, they can do whatever they want.

[Zinnia]

First I Lol'd, agreed w/ Kristilyn1, and Beth H has a point..On lunch break people can visit the library, cafe, use their own computer, or have a boss who has a break- room where there is a computer set up for employees 'free time'(<in our dreams! Can you imagine the fights over the thing?!). I just wish I could access CL from my job! Good luck, http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif Zinnia

[ebobbitt]

daner94, do you not have any friends in the IT department? If you do, ask them to exclude your sign-on from the internet filtering system. All it takes is a friendly network administrator.
Elizabeth

[Wendy w]

I think that funnybone may be right about the porn sites, but it can also mean that you work for "Big Brother".

I work at a university and the dept. Chair once cracked a joke in a meeting about staff internet use! On the serious side, she said that some of us do use it for our jobs-I do once in a while! However, I don't take official "breaks" so this board keeps me sane (at least in my own mind http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif). They haven't gone to drastic steps yet because most of us get our jobs done.

[BarbaraL]

It's important to remember that companies can monitor pretty much anything you do on the computer. I try to keep that in mind and limit my time on this BB at work -- there have been times where I look up and gulp at how long I've been here! Interestingly, in today's paper (The Star Ledger, in northern NJ), there's an article "An IRS worker's day: sex sites, chat rooms." "A sampling of IRS employees found that they used a little more than half of their online time at work to visit sex sites, gamble, trade stocks, participate in chat rooms and do other nonwork activity, the Treasure Department's inspector general said." "Her staff found that employees spent 8250 hours out of 16275 hours online -- or about 51% of the time -- doing personal business." The article goes on to say that screening software has been installed.

[lorilei]

IMHO... the whole idea that employers are making it their business to monitor employees behaviors is somewhat ridiculous. It's very "big brother" and I simply can't approve.

My very firm opinion is this: If a person can do their job well and still take breaks during the day, more power to them. Efficiency is a skill, and one shouldn't be landblasted for practicing it.

I would never monitor my employees computer usage. If their job performance is satisfactory, I could care less how they spend their free time.

[kwormann]

We were also told recently that if we used our computers for anything but education, we could be fired. I do, however, check my email during the day because parents have it, but I can t check the board on my lunch or planning time.....

Kim

[daner94]

Okay, here's the thing. I work for a large Company. However, I am not their employee, I work for the foodservice department; in catering. So I could even say I need this site for my work!! (I don't think anyone would believe me though)

Unfortunately my computer is on their network and they have this new program where there are categories that are unacceptable to use-- this one comes under "hobbies". But of course I can get onto any other website-- including the travel one I frequent too. (I have a lot of spare time on my hands here, can you tell?) So it is frustrating to me, although I completely understand the logic of this new program.

I just need to logon before 8am to see what I missed the day before!

Dana

[BevP]

I tried to keep my big trap outta' this but just have to chime in. At work is the bosses time. They have every right to expect you to spend your time working on thier stuff not your stuff. They have every right to monitor what you do on thier computer. They don't have the right to video tape you in the bathroom or any other place to expect privacy, i.e. locker rooms. But other than that, it's their time you're on. If you don't like that your company is monitoring you, quit, you have that right. Obviously too much time was being wasted by too many employees surfing the net and not working.

[Kristilyn1]

Guess you'll have to get a Sprint PCS phone.....surfable!

LOL

Kristi

[LGBurns]

Okay, now it's time for me to admit that in my job I spend a lot of time waiting around at a computer waiting for someone to bring me work. If my company were to limit my internet use, I probably would go crazy with boredom. I can only play so many games of hearts. But this is unique to my type of jobs (and there are nights when I hardly get a chance to get up to go to the bathroom, much less check the board). While I agree that most good companies understand that good employees shouldn't need to be monitored, I can understand a company setting up a system like this if there is abuse.

[Kristilyn1]

Unless the boss is a control freak--most companies do these types of things because of abuse. It's like phone usage--everyone makes personal calls at work--right? 99% of the time, companies could care less. But if someone does an audit of the phone system and sees what has to be an excessive amount of personal calls--that's when you get the memo about limiting use, reimbursing the company, etc.

Everyone has the right to breaks--but no company is required to allow employees to use their business equipment to take a break. Again--I am sympathetic--I would hate it if a company I worked for did that--but if it was MY company--I would install it the moment I figured out that people were taking advantage. It just sucks--since you know YOU weren't the one taking advantage.

On a side note--my husband works for a very large bank and they recently had a high level meeting where the IT department is cracking down on the porn--it's overloaded their system, people are downloading so much of it.

Kristi

[schuh]

I'm an at-home mom now, but before then I worked for small companies. My most recent company (I was there more than 8 years) had the belief that if you treat people like responsible adults, they will act like responsible adults. They never monitored computer usage, nor did they worry about the comings and goings of their employees. They just expected people to do their jobs and if there was a performance issue (people missing deadlines, etc.) they handled it individually. The result: high loyalty and low turnover. If I had my business I would run it the same way. You reap what you sow. That's too bad about your situation, daner94.

[Grace]

I would agree with Schuh. I happen to be efficient at what I do. This is supposed to be a desireable thing in an employee, so why should I be "punished" for my ability to work fast and efficiently? Happy workers are productive workers, and life is not only about working - if the employee is doing his or her job well, then I can't imagine what the problem with it would be. We are all multi-faceted, individual human beings, not drones or robots. Every really good company knows this and is trying everything they can to keep good employees (with things like on-site child care, excercise facilities, some small offices even allow you to bring your dog to work with you, etc.)

Anyway, just my 25 cents (I can never put in just 2 cents!! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif)

[valeriek]

My mid-size company (well, not mine http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif) had a problem with people surfing for porn as well. A couple people were asked to leave. I know they monitor internet usage, but only crack down when it becomes obsessive or the sites being viewed violate any HR policies. I think moderation is the key to life, and I get angry at those that abuse the system and ruin it for those that want a small break. By the way, internet usage here spikes during March Madness! I can understand and sympathize with employers who want mazimum production, but usually people who are surfing the net excessively have other work related problems or they are not being given enough to do, which is the employers responsibility in the first place.

If a smoker can take a 10 minute break every hour to get up from his/her desk, walk downstairs, smoke, then return to work, then I, as a non-smoker (now anyway http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif, and I am just using this as an example) should get a break to do something that relieves my stress. Plus, I am still at my desk and I still answer the phone when it rings and my boss can still find me etc.

I've been on my soap box too long and in reality, I only check this board at lunch and on those rare occasions that five o'clock hits and I'm at a good work stopping point. I sympathize with you Daner, but until the bad apples stop ruining it for those that are responsible surfers, this is what we will have to live with.

[tovie]

When we got new computers and network earlier this year, whatever program they set up as the "net nanny" to try and cut down on people accessing porn sites wouldn't let me on the CL site or board. Yet I could access SOAR and other cooking sites, so I kept trying to figure out what could possibly be on the site that would set the thing off. Were you all discussing the sex of eggplant or something? ;-) But after a couple days, I talked to our engineer and he fixed it for me.

I never was real impressed with the blocking program, though, and wonder how well they really work. Or maybe I should blame whoever set it up for not doing it correctly. I work at a tv station. The first day it was on, it blocked access to the network site and caused us to mess up a bunch of on air stuff because the site couldn't be accessed(g) And while it blocked CL, it had no problem at all (much to my embarrassment) calling up several sites of err, rather graphic paperdolls when I was doing a search.