Yikes

My husband is an IT manager and his management asked him if he could determine where employees were surfing on the web during work hours. He had a look and was quite surprised to discover how many employees were spending time on porn sites, one poor soul in particular seemed to do nothing else. The delicate subject was brought to the attention of his supervisor and he was let go. No wonder his sales were slacking off....

mom

Funny-my daughter works for corporate attorneys (paralegal) and she sits at the computer all day,often checking on things on the Fodors Travel sites, her boss asks her for advice when he is going on a trip! and she tells him the especially funny posts that she reads....

wondering

Is Fodors trying to give the Troll's a message by bringing up a post over a year old? I think what they are trying to tell us is the Willie's, gas people etc., should go back to work and stop posting rediculous post. Read this and take note working Troll's.

Monique

I was in several long lasting games of spades on Yahoo more than once with some pentagon employees last year. Great opponents by the way but now it makes me wonder.
They didn't seem in fear of loseing their jobs.

Julie

mom-Your daughter and her boss are both probably being monitored by higher ups. I work in an IT Dept. for a company and we routinely monitor our employees internet surfing. Several people have been fired for surfing continually at work and not just on porn sites either. Surfing at work while you are supposed to be working is the same as stealing from your employer. You are at work to work and be productive, not to surf the web. IMO, employees are naive if they don't think they are being watched.

TheBoss

As an HR manager, there are a couple of things you should know about this issue. First, there is no illusion of privacy. In most companies, every new employee signs a statement that they know the computer systems and applications belong to the employer and they have no right of privacy for anything they do. This is Human Resources 101 these days. Over the past several years, more and more companies have stepped up their monitoring of employee computer use. It's not just because they're cracking the whip on their employees' productivity, it's because a number of employers have actually been SUED and LOST racial discrimination, harassment, and sexual harassment cases because ONE SINGLE EMPLOYEE sent a racist or sexist message to another, and someone saw it. I kid you not, this news is available from any HR source. So companies are strongly advised, by their attorneys and in the business community, to start monitoring what their people are doing to reduce their risk.

In spite of this my company doesn't monitor where people go or how much time they spend, but every employee knows that we can any time we want, for any reason, and they signed a statement saying they know this. We only do it when we have a complaint or a concern--and once when we did monitor we ended up firing an employee for sending extremely pornographic e-mails to many of her co-workers over a period of months.

Our corporate attitude is that yeah, people are probably "wasting" company time surfing the web or using IM or sending e-mail to their boyfriend, but at the same time it allows them to be more productive in some ways doing stuff they'd have to leave work to do--Christmas shop, find medical information, etc. etc. I don't see any more time being wasted than is already being wasted on the phone, at the coffee pot, smoking, etc. etc.

Self Employed

Okay, HR managers and the sort, this problem/question is for you.

I'm an independent contractor (self-employed... consultant... you name it) who has brought in my own equipment to my largest client's office. To maintain my small businessperson reputation, I am using a separate phone line (company's line that they pay for) for internet and paying for my own service. I haven't used their "office services" or computer dept. for any help. It's not on their internal intranet... it's (supposedly) my internet.

Are they monitoring me and am I paying for it?

TheBoss

I'm not an attorney, but in my opinion if you are an independent contractor and using YOUR equipment, it would be illegal -- a privacy issue -- for them to monitor you. I don't even know how they could, if you're not on their network or intranet, without breaking into your computer and installing something.

curious

I think I can help. I'm an IT consultant (bill for my time, and I post from home - not work). Self-employed, depends, are you billing them for your time? (in which case - your screwed if they decide to check on you), or are you billing them for the job? If they pay you for the job, then post away, the only time you are wasting is your own. Are you a registered user on their network? Are you using their software for network access? If yes, then they are monitoring you. And for everyone else, they not only know how much time you're on the net but what site you're on, what time you were on it, how long and can read anything you type. They can also read every e-mail that comes to and from you. Don't kid yourselves. The trick is to access the network without logging in, from another computer (not your own). This can frequently easily be done. That's really the only way you might be able to surf anonymously. Otherwise, be sure that Big Brother is watching.

curious

For the Boss, even if it is your computer, if it is attached to their network, you are using their resources to access the internet and they are monitering that access. If the computer is a stand alone, then no problem, they can't moniter anything.

Topper

Topping for all the slackers....

mom

Hi Julie-my daughters boss knows she is surfing, as I said, he asks her travel questions because she did a lot of research on this site for a trip...they just don't care, if she gets her job done, they are happy...some people take a coffee/smoke break every 15 minutes, she goes online

ttt

ttt

ttt

topping for all you bored worker bees...

Topper

ttt

surfin-at-home

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sigh .... I wish I had a job to slack off from ...