Good. Job security for me.

It's Boomers fault.

Yeah, because there's no other way to access Facebook during the day other than an employer's internet access.

Boy, are they going to be disappointed.

Not surprising. 2/3rds of college grads are unemployable.

As long as Fark is still OK....

Steve Zodiac: Good. Job security for me.

lol, no kidding. More jobs for me, I guess.

So that's why there are so many people at the OWS protests.

I'd never take a job someplace that restricted Internet access except as required for security/regulatory compliance. That's a "beatings until morale improves" sort of policy that comes from management that can't figure out how to measure productivity or to fire people that misuse company resources -- not someplace I want to work.

OMG, these kids are totally stupid and I can't believe they little losers want to access their Facebook and Twitter and stuff at work. Talking to their friends and stupid crap like that, what rubbish.

Now, not being able to access Fark at work to comment on how the red haired chick from Mad Men is a land whale and Kiera Knightly looks like a little boy's skeleton...that would be a terrible injustice.

I had a boss once who shut off facebook access. He then at a meeting said "ok, so a lot of you people a biatching about the fact that facebook has been cut off." He then put up a PP slide with a series of numbers on it, and asked:

"Do you know what those numbers are? Those are the unemployment rates for this city, county, state, and country. You don´t like that there is no facebook here? go become one of these numbers"

What on Earth do people need access to Facebook for at work? ....unless it pertains to the job in some way (ie: new media marketing or business), there is no reason for anyone to visit their Facebook page that's not a complete and total waste of company time.

Your friends' status updates about what they ate for breakfast can wait. There is a public computer in the office breakroom that you are free to use during your lunch break. If you're on the clock, STFU and GBTW.

Its about a paradigm shift in the work day. Work, work, work 8+ just isn't feasible for most white collar jobs. Let's just all be honest about it. There is not enough work to do and having to make work for yourself is, well, dumb. That's your employer's responsibility. If there isn't enough work to be done, they should adjust your hours or not complain if you're spending hours doing nothing.

A worker is far more productive and happier (which leads to being more productive) if they are allowed to take breaks between tasks or before starting and after ending a particularly grueling one. Some people take smoking breaks, some chat at the water cooler, some go to the office gym, and some just want to fark around on their facebook for a few minutes.

An employer who is a whip cracker and roams the aisles looking for slackers is a dinosaur and not worth the time to put the company on your resume. Inanely strict internet rules are a symptom. The younger generations learned in their collective childhood that killing yourself and sacrificing your happiness for the company is not the way to go because the company will never repay that kind of loyalty.

TL;DR: It is just better for employers to have a happier and more productive work force by letting them screw around a few minutes than to dominate them and constantly lose time & money in turn over.

AverageAmericanGuy: Teknowaffle: I had a boss once who shut off facebook access. He then at a meeting said "ok, so a lot of you people a biatching about the fact that facebook has been cut off." He then put up a PP slide with a series of numbers on it, and asked:

"Do you know what those numbers are? Those are the unemployment rates for this city, county, state, and country. You don´t like that there is no facebook here? go become one of these numbers"

He sounds like a dick.

He is. But I think he is right. Before that I would walk by our call center and see the CSRs on the phone with customers and surfing facebook at the same time, so our customers weren´t getting the best service if Cindy was sitting there likking her bffs post, and have to say to the customer "can you repeat that"

Like a poster said above me, most companies do need to embrace social media as a tool. The company I am referring to did, and the facebook page has taken off, but we had a small group of us who would determine what content was apropriate, most likely to be shared, and then, post it. But embracing social media doesn't mean you let your employees dick off on there all day.

angstycoder: I've worked for a couple of very good companies that filtered the hell out of their internet. Also, filtering certain sites (especially several of the social media variety,) helps cut down on malware.

Scanning for malware helps cut down on malware much better than banning social media sites. Removing electric and gas service from your house would cut down on your risk of dying in fire, but most people would agree you're better off just buying a smoke detector.

Teknowaffle: He is. But I think he is right. Before that I would walk by our call center and see the CSRs on the phone with customers and surfing facebook at the same time, so our customers weren´t getting the best service if Cindy was sitting there likking her bffs post, and have to say to the customer "can you repeat that"

Couldn't you deal with that problem by encouraging Cindy to do her job instead of slacking off, and firing her if she can't handle the responsibility that her position requires?

There are a few safety-oriented jobs where distractions are absolutely not allowable, and every reasonable effort to remove them must be made. Call-center rep is not one of those jobs.

I'm actually kinda OK with restricting things like facebook, ebay, and youtube at work. I work at a hospital that is part of a multi-state hospital system and they cut off access to those things here years ago. Know why? Just before the ban over 1/3 of our bandwidth was being used for youtube. 1/3. That's a lot of bandwidth.

Are people going to goof off at work? Sure, to a certain extent. But you don't have to encourage it. It's like passing out crayons to a bunch of little kids in school and telling them not to use them.

If you are willing to walk away from a good paying job just because you aren't allowed to goof off on facebook during your shift then have fun living at your parents house. And don't whine about not being able to pay for your student loans.

pruofplump:
Couldn't you deal with that problem by encouraging Cindy to do her job instead of slacking off, and firing her if she can't handle the responsibility that her position requires?


We could just fire them, but the amount of technical training on our products that they had to go through was intensive, so unfortunately we had to hold on to them, as a high turn over rate would cost us in time (my time in training them on our products was obviously the most valuable).

One thing I learned from looking at internet usage logs from before the sonicwall hammer, was that the skankier the girl, the more time she spent on facebook.