Browse the web as much as you want at work

[mrowl]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/04/24/web.surf.ap/index.html

Judge: Employee Web surfing not unreasonable

NEW YORK (AP) -- Surfing the Web at work is equivalent to reading a newspaper or talking on the phone, an administrative law judge said in recommending the lightest possible punishment for a city worker accused of disregarding warnings to stay off the Internet.

The case involved Toquir Choudhri, a 14-year veteran of the Department of Education, whose office computer had been used to visit news and travel Web sites.

"It should be observed that the Internet has become the modern equivalent of a telephone or a daily newspaper, providing a combination of communication and information that most employees use as frequently in their personal lives as for their work," Administrative Law Judge John Spooner said in recommending only a reprimand for Choudhri.

The judge noted that city agencies allow workers to make personal calls if it doesn't interfere with their work performance.

Choudhri's lawyer, Martin Druyan, called the ruling "very reasonable."

[Sooner in Tampa]

I have been...for years now.

[etouffee]

This is a pet peave of mine, even though it's never directly impacted me. Research has shown that allowing employees to surf the web freely does NOT diminish productivity, and that placing serious restrictions on their web surfing DOES diminish productivity; not only their productivity but other employees' as well.

Why? Because if Joe has decided to stop working for a few minutes, he's going to stop working whether you let him surf the web or not. BUT-- if he can't surf the web, he's going to find something else to do. And studies show that something else is likely to involve getting up and engaging another employee in non-work conversation. Now you've got TWO people not working, Mr. Web Nazi. Good job!

[Osce0la]

My old job was quick to give the boot to people surfing the web at work. I have been at my current job for just over 1 1/2 years and am on the web nearly every day. The managers here don't care as long as you're not looking at pr0n and you are getting your work done. My supervisor was talking to me yesterday about my promotion and told me the guy that used to work at the desk I'll be moving to used to surf the web all day...As long as your work gets done, I see no problem with it.

[TUSooner]

And if you get fired in OKlahoma or Tejas, just tell your boss that an adminstrative law judge in NEW YORK CITY said what you were doing was OK!

[etouffee]

As long as your work gets done, I see no problem with it.Exactly. If my work gets done, why do you CARE what I do in the time I take for myself? If I decide to stop working for a few minutes, why is surfing the web any different from making a phone call, going outside to smoke, going for a walk, reading the paper or a magazine, going to get a cup of coffee or a candy bar, or chatting with the guy in the next cube about sports?

Sure, you can argue that there are bandwidth costs involved, but it's negligible unless I'm doing something that involves audio, video, or huge graphics files. I can understand blocking that stuff. But these workplaces that block everything external to the company, that's just dumb.

And if you treat people like children or prisoners, they're going to act like children or prisoners.

(I still don't know why I get so worked up over this issue; I've never worked anywhere that restricts web activity.)

[Osce0la]

(I still don't know why I get so worked up over this issue; I've never worked anywhere that restricts web activity.)
Like I said, my first job restricted internet use to news sites only, and you still couldn't spend more than like 15 minutes on there in one day (and that had to be on your break)...I spend less time looking at ESPN.com or one of the other sports websites than I do talking to someone about sports. I can look on the net and read about the past weekend's football games and be done in a few minutes. If I start talking to someone about the past weekends games I could go on all day (and then, as already stated, you have 2 people not working instead of 1).