Blocked Websites at Work

[moon]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

I operate a small business and know people who spend (I'm guessing here but am probably not too far off) literally hours a day playing around on websites and wasting (stealing?) their employers' time. I'm not judging any of you because I don't know your situations, but consider this from the employer's point of view. My staff computers are not blocked because I know what they're used for but I do understand why some employers do block some website access.

Say an employer has 50 employees who spend an average of even 30 minutes on line per day on non-company stuff (Facebook, this site, etc.). At $40 an hour that's the lost-productivity cost is a quarter million a year. It's expensive, guys. Is it right?

(Yes, I did post this during the workday, but remember that I am the employer. I work hard at my business, including lots of extra hours. Besides, it's my lunch break right now.)

Is taking the internet away going to make these workers all that more productive? Especially those workers that spent whole afternoons online. I think that they would either find otherways to occupy their time or just coast half-assed through their work.

I'm not saying companies shouldn't block the internet if it is causing problems but it might be a better idea to address the individual rather than blocking the whole internet to the company.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by moon

Is taking the internet away going to make these workers all that more productive? Especially those workers that spent whole afternoons online. I think that they would either find otherways to occupy their time or just coast half-assed through their work.

I'm not saying companies shouldn't block the internet if it is causing problems but it might be a better idea to address the individual rather than blocking the whole internet to the company.

foofighter specifically said that it was his computer alone that was being blocked. Dont you think that he, the individual, is now being addressed? The problem to me seems that he is not getting the message.

[moon]

Originally Posted by redforever

foofighter specifically said that it was his computer alone that was being blocked. Dont you think that he, the individual, is now being addressed? The problem to me seems that he is not getting the message.

I was talking about the more general practice of blocking computers and Moneyguys examples of people he knew that spent whole days/afternoons wasting time on the internet and his talking about the cost to companies over a whole year.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by moon

I was talking about the more general practice of blocking computers and Moneyguys examples of people he knew that spent whole days/afternoons wasting time on the internet and his talking about the cost to companies over a whole year.

I hear you, I'm glad my boss doesnt do that to me. As long as, at the end of the day, my work is done, and its done on time overall and at my usual unparalleled quality he doesnt care.

During the olympics he let me put his TV in my office so clients and I could watch the game. During the playoffs he lets me wear my Jersey to work during home games.

The only downside: Hes a Nucks fan (From Vancouver originally). Too bad really, he had the potential to be a really good guy....

Treating your employees well is clutch. Employees not abusing that privilege is equally as important.

I wont comment on FF15's situation because I dont really know, but at the end of the day its a two-way street.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by Locke

I hear you, I'm glad my boss doesnt do that to me. As long as, at the end of the day, my work is done, and its done on time overall and at my usual unparalleled quality he doesnt care.

During the olympics he let me put his TV in my office so clients and I could watch the game. During the playoffs he lets me wear my Jersey to work during home games.

The only downside: Hes a Nucks fan (From Vancouver originally). Too bad really, he had the potential to be a really good guy....

Treating your employees well is clutch. Employees not abusing that privilege is equally as important.

I wont comment on FF15's situation because I dont really know, but at the end of the day its a two-way street.

And you sir have learned the recipe for success. Good for you.

[foofighter15]

Originally Posted by guzzy

My money would go on "if you were banned from using it you were probably abusing it". IT guys just don't ban sites from people who looked once or twice. My advice....get over it and get back to work.

Well as it turns out my computer was just the first one to be affected. But I definitely have not been abusing it. The reason why I was annoyed by this is its another example of how Facebook is getting so over done that its become a work place issue and it drives me nuts. If there is anything I personally should be banned from at work its CP. At least on Facebook I actually make it work related sometimes!

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by foofighter15

Well as it turns out my computer was just the first one to be affected. But I definitely have not been abusing it. The reason why I was annoyed by this is its another example of how Facebook is getting so over done that its become a work place issue and it drives me nuts. If there is anything I personally should be banned from at work its CP. At least on Facebook I actually make it work related sometimes!

Do people just leave facebook on in the corner all day? They're not really looking at it and still getting work done. But it counts as 'spending all day on facebook' to the IT guys?

[foofighter15]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Do people just leave facebook on in the corner all day? They're not really looking at it and still getting work done. But it counts as 'spending all day on facebook' to the IT guys?

I've done that before, and I can see that. But thing is with my office is no one really monitors what websites we got to because we are an internet company which just adds to the randomness of this sudden blocking.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Do people just leave facebook on in the corner all day? They're not really looking at it and still getting work done. But it counts as 'spending all day on facebook' to the IT guys?

They just started blocking Facebook here at work, and there were several people who were spending 4 hours per day, every day on Facebook. And leaving it minimized doesn't count as spending time on it. At my work, the proxy logs each request for a page, and a timer goes off. If you only spend 20 seconds on that page and go to another, it ends that timer and starts another. If you just click on a page, but do nothing, the timer stops after a minute.

It is possible that these people were refreshing FB once pe rminute checking for new messages as opposed to actively searching/stalking. But that still takes up some time.

[GrrlGoalie33]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

However, many parents install software to monitor their activity (spouses, for that matter).

My brother-in-law employs blocking software on his kids' computer, not because he doesn't trust them - he doesn't trust the internet. One wrong letter in a URL and the kids are looking at inappropriate websites...

[OilersBaby]

Originally Posted by Locke

I hear you, I'm glad my boss doesnt do that to me. As long as, at the end of the day, my work is done, and its done on time overall and at my usual unparalleled quality he doesnt care.

During the olympics he let me put his TV in my office so clients and I could watch the game. During the playoffs he lets me wear my Jersey to work during home games.

The only downside: Hes a Nucks fan (From Vancouver originally). Too bad really, he had the potential to be a really good guy....

Treating your employees well is clutch. Employees not abusing that privilege is equally as important.

I wont comment on FF15's situation because I dont really know, but at the end of the day its a two-way street.

My boss is exactly the same..he doesn't care as long as my work is high quality and turned in on time. His words exactly "sure, you can listen to the oilers games online and put headphones on as long as you do your work, im not going to say anything". Now if my work started to slide..I know my access to the Internet would become more limited.

And the only downside of my boss is that he's a DIEHARD Sharks fan and even more disgusting is that he loves the USA Hockey team more than Edmontonians love their perogies.

[halibut]

Originally Posted by Canada 02

just curious. what are the capabilities of big brother watching over us? Is the IT dept (theoretically) capable of knowing ever webpage we view, or every e-mail we send?

Depends on the budget of the IT department. But for all intents and purposes yes they can. Now for the big caveat; Think to how much information they will have to sort through. If the company is big enough it would literally take months to fully sort and categorize the information that these logs provide. All in order to prosecute anybody.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by OilersBaby

My boss is exactly the same..he doesn't care as long as my work is high quality and turned in on time. His words exactly "sure, you can listen to the oilers games online and put headphones on as long as you do your work, im not going to say anything". Now if my work started to slide..I know my access to the Internet would become more limited.

And the only downside of my boss is that he's a DIEHARD Sharks fan and even more disgusting is that he loves the USA Hockey team more than Edmontonians love their perogies.

Those are some serious drawbacks!!

-Oilers games? Your boss is the most evil man ever. If he had a heart hed block those out and consider an intervention.

- He should force you to listen to nothing but Sharks games.

- USA Hockey team? They havent won anything since Kurt Russell was the coach....

I'm not even going to touch the perogies comment.....

J/K

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by halibut

Depends on the budget of the IT department. But for all intents and purposes yes they can. Now for the big caveat; Think to how much information they will have to sort through. If the company is big enough it would literally take months to fully sort and categorize the information that these logs provide. All in order to prosecute anybody.

Thats the reason to buy 3rd party boxes that does that via MAC addresses. Its a waste of resurces to actually spend human time on the task.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by halibut

Depends on the budget of the IT department. But for all intents and purposes yes they can. Now for the big caveat; Think to how much information they will have to sort through. If the company is big enough it would literally take months to fully sort and categorize the information that these logs provide. All in order to prosecute anybody.

Sonicwall sorts that information for you on a daily basis according to IP address.

So each computer on the network is logged...and their bandwidth usage, top website hits....etc, etc is reported to the Network Admin.

Of course if you have 500 computers on the network....theres a lot more information to keep track of.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Yes, I agree. I mentioned that my staff don't have blocks on their computers. I trust them. However, I also know personally a fellow who spends his life on websites at work. I have no idea how he gets away with it. If he worked for me, damn right I'd block his computer from accessing certain sites. Same issue with children. My kids could use the computer freely because I trusted them. However, many parents install software to monitor their activity (spouses, for that matter).

And about your last point. Yes, maybe a quick check of this site rejuvenates you for the last couple hours of the afternoon, but what if that ends up killing the rest of the day?

Never hired a smoker huh?

[Tower]

I just copied my IP address and used remote desktop in Accessories - communication. Did that for awhile when I worked for Rogers Wireless... Ha ha fools never caught on.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

Never hired a smoker huh?

I have. But not for many years. I never said that misuse of computers were the only example of time waste. There are many.

[foofighter15]

Originally Posted by redforever

foofighter specifically said that it was his computer alone that was being blocked. Dont you think that he, the individual, is now being addressed? The problem to me seems that he is not getting the message.

For the record, my computer was just the first one to be affected. We have a weird setup and that seems to be the case when the system goes down now too. So everyone is blocked, not just me