[c1run1]

For those who have access to computers at work . Most employers Restrict adult web sights and gaming sights and so forth .
I completey would agree with such restrictions , in any working enviorment.
As it is one of our supervisors has added ebay to the list of restricked sights .
It's fustrating when i'm not at home and i can't help out Team members with questions from ebay .
I wounder who pissed in that supervisor's corn flakes last week . I mean whats the big deal it's only Ebay ?

 

[dreamweaver]

As an employer I can say that I agree. I know I will probably get flamed for this, but I don't care. When I see 6 employees stand around for 20 minutes doing nothing productive for my business that's 2 man-hours that I have paid for and received ZERO return. I probably sound like a greedy capitalist pig. The fact of the matter is that I am paying people for their time and skill. It isn't high school where if you goof off it only hurts you. This is a WORKplace. It is designed for WORK. With all the wasted time I see with my own eyes when I am there, how much is wasted when I am not around? When did I sign up to be a babysitter?

In addition to wasted time, what about the use of business property for personal pleasure / gain? And what about the integrity of the network, and the gamesmanship of employees pitting one another against the company / boss? ..... "If she gets to go on Ebay, why can't I go on MySpace? It's only during my lunchbreak". When I am at work I try to set an example. Without a stretch I can honestly say that, in the last 3 years (since we have had internet access at the store) I have, MAYBE spent a total of 5 hours on the internet for personal purposes. By the same token, I have seen employees spend that much in a week "surfing" for non-business relates internet activity... and that's just what I have personally seen. If my business didn't require it, I would shut it off. The worst offenders are no longer working for me... not because of that abuse... it was only part of a broader culmination fo issues. My last statement would be this... If you were shelling out:

$xx.00 an hour on average per employee, and you had
XX Number of employees, and they spent
xx hours on the internet per week for personal purposes

How long would it be before you had lost enough money that you could have bought another Camaro? Just keeping it real

 

[1stgenCR]

I'd get more work done on some days if this site was banned at work

 

[radial72]

Perhaps one was supposed to say, um, work at work? Not surf Ebay. Many admins can track how much time people spend at a given site, if it gets abused, then ZAP, and it goes in the restricted bin. I'd guess that was the case at your workplace.

The internet is a good tool, but most people don't need it on their desktop, it's just too much temptation. Of course when I worked in an office, I had Duke Nukem, and bought parts cars all day long, all I had to do was listen to customer complaints and lie to them about how great the company's service should have been.

Now I do my own thing, I have high speed internet, and all I really do with it is check e-mails. If I want to avoid paying bills and living indoors, I'll spend some time on there.

 

[nikkisdad]

If your wondering who pissed in his cornflakes, look no further than your keyboard. If you are on e-bay or other sites, that can hardly be a value to your company. I understand every job has down time that affords some play for the worker, and I took advantage of that myself, but when it becomes a problem you can hardly blame them for taking the play sites away.

 

[c1run1]

Steve ,
i understand your piont completely , however why not just remove all the internet completely ?
I don't work in an enviorment where $ is the factor for productive return .
I have a half hour down time every hour till 5 am . I work in a tower in a max security Jail , we switch off every two hours , one officer walks the dorms the other works the tower controlling doors .
It would be the same for some one who may work in a power plant of some sort where they check gauges every half hour then return to there office and sit and wait till needed again , and so forth .

 

[c1run1]

"If your wondering who pissed in his cornflakes, look no further than your keyboard"

Mike don't be so quick to judge , some days we earn our money !!

 

[dreamweaver]

Steve ,
i understand your piont completely , however why not just remove all the internet completely ?

More and more of my business is contingent on internet access.

I don't work in an enviorment where $ is the factor for productive return .
I have a half hour down time every hour till 5 am . I work in a tower in a max security Jail , we switch off every two hours , one officer walks the dorms the other works the tower controlling doors .
It would be the same for some one who may work in a power plant of some sort where they check gauges every half hour then return to there office and sit and wait till needed again , and so forth .

What I said was not an indictment on you per se, but on the policy and procedure as a whole. I see all too often employees taking liberties because of an "Entitlement Attitude", as I call it. Again... nothing personal, just an observation from one who has seen it time and time again in the workplace.

 

[67 Swedish Convertible]

Being a production manager I can understand the view from any employer.

We also had a hard time with people surfing the net, so we tried to shut down some of the sites they were visiting. However, since some of our work require internet access (tracking of orders, booking of transports, checking addresses etc) we had to keep some of it open.
However, we all know what the mother of inventions are....The guys/girls in the factory realised that you could actually access any site from within e.g DHL or similar site by using some of their search engines. There was nothing we could do. So we thought, any way.

What I do now is that I log all sites, with the time spent on all sites and I publish it. In public. Out in the factory. Now, everyone can see that "Bob" spent X number of hours on "Team Camaro" or "Ebay", and when he did that. If on his lunch break - no problem, within normal working hours - big problems. Once they received their personal log on information, surfing the net was not as fun as before. Their workmates can easily see who's been dragging their feet. Peer group pressure solved the problem. :thumbsup:

 

[JimM]

I agree with Steve completely. Being a small business owner, I'd very much like 8 hours of work for 8 hours of pay from my employees. I'd settle for 6!

People should come to work to work, and surf the net or talk to thier relatives on the phone when they get home.

If I could afford the time and manpower required to track internet usage, I'd do it in a heartbeat, but at 5 employees total, it's just not possible.

And no, I don't count. I'm the boss, and I'll spend as much time on TC as I please.

 

[click]

Might I suggest that employees be given a seperate PC in a break room for "lunch" only where the break is longer than a quick cup of coffee. Folks could check their email or ebay or TC on their break time. You'd have to trust that they are only using their 1/2 hour or 1 hour properly and going back to work on time but it might relieve the frustration.? just an idea. If that doesnt work, they can get a laptop and sit in the car on wireless cell phone line and pay huge amounts of air time for it themselves.

 

[dreamweaver]

What I do now is that I log all sites, with the time spent on all sites and I publish it. In public. Out in the factory. Now, everyone can see that "Bob" spent X number of hours on "Team Camaro" or "Ebay", and when he did that. If on his lunch break - no problem, within normal working hours - big problems. Once they received their personal log on information, surfing the net was not as fun as before. Their workmates can easily see who's been dragging their feet. Peer group pressure solved the problem. :thumbsup:

That's pretty dang inventive. What a great idea! I can only imagine that, had I done something like this in the past, things might have worked out better for a couple of my employees. I wish I had the time to figure out how to do do this.

 

[Wayne]

I am self employed and one way to look at situation is if you were paying someone to do something would you want them doing something other than what you were paying for that does not pertain to your job what you are being paid to do.

 

[DjD]

For those who have access to computers at work . Most employers Restrict adult web sights and gaming sights and so forth .
I completey would agree with such restrictions , in any working enviorment.
As it is one of our supervisors has added ebay to the list of restricked sights .
It's fustrating when i'm not at home and i can't help out Team members with questions from ebay .
I wounder who pissed in that supervisor's corn flakes last week . I mean whats the big deal it's only Ebay ?

The ebay thing is a big deal, you checking out linked car auctions from TC threads isn't the problem. It's people buying and selling on company time. The casual ebayer hovers over their auctions, the guy running a side business puts in lots of hours online keeping things going. It's easier to block all ebay access at the office than try to catch the real offenders...

Where I work they don't block anything but anything deemed personally offensive by others (much wider impact than porn) is not allowed. Along with that, no accessing personal email accounts (threats of virus, trojans and such) and no e-commerce (buying or selling). There is also code of conduct verbage that leaves any personal internet access open for interpetion. As a mgr I am salaried and take work home so exception is made at the office. I typically don't take conventional lunch or breaks and that plays into it too.


I found it very interesting that there have been many cases in the courts where employers have had to reinstate an employee that was terminated for using the web on company time. The court ruling was that the employer allowed employees other forms of communication such as, reading the newspaper, taking personal phone calls and even listening to the radio and talking at the water cooler. In the courts eyes the internet was no different, reading up online news (newspaper), pm or e-mail (taking personal calls) etc.

In the cases where the employee got his job back, mgnt was not able to provide documentation showing any action has been taken toward the other time wasting activities...

 

[HaulnSS]

Thanks guys, I just wasted 15 minutes of my employers time to read this....:beers:

Damnit...that's me...

 

[pa69cam]

By the times on the post it looks like nobody works.

 

[67 Convertible]

I am a manager and have to admit that I check out TC etc. many times during the day. Like Dennis, I am salaried, basically my own boss, have my own private office, never take a lunch, usually work a 10 hour day and take work home. I am trying to justify it, but it is still wasting company time.

My company has no policy, no blocks, no nothing. Nothing is ever talked about concerning the internet, and everyone in the building has access. Maybe big brother is watching us upstairs, but nothing has ever been said to anyone, ever.

 

[dreamweaver]

Here is another aspect of this discussion:

Say you have 10 employees... some have been with the company 5 months, some 12 years, and all points in between. These employees have a range or work ethics... some will give you 110%, while others do just what is necessary to get by. If a "slaker" spends 20%, 30%, or 40% of his or her "spare" time at work surfing the Net, and the productive, dedicated employee sees it, you have a problem......

"Here I am working my butt off, barely taking a lunch break, and being a good employee for 10 years while this clown gets to play all day long.

The slacker is a salesperson
The worker bee is a bookkeeper

Oh... and to make matters worse, the salesman makes way more than the bookkeeper since he gets commission on top of a base salary. The morale of the bookkeeper goes in the toilet, and she "whispers" the offense to anyone who will listen. The next thing you know "everybody's doing it", and you have, not one, but 10 employees wasting as much time as possible on the internet. an average of 10 employees a day (retail is open 7 days a week) at, let's say, an average of $15.00 an hour (not to mention worker's comp, matching taxes, etc.). to keep the business operational is:

$150.00 per hour ... x 8 hours a day =
$1200.00 a day .... x 7 days a week
10% loss in productivity (that's being generous) = $120.00 loss per day
$120.00 per day X 361 days (we are closed 4 days a year) =
$43,000 + Loss per year

That comes out of my pocket. That's my money. If you were the employer, and you lost that much money just because people were surfing the net, what would you do? Say it ain't so? If you worked 8 hours today, and you spent 1 hour and 20 minutes surfing the Net, you spent 10% of your work time for personal reasons. I may seem harsh, or like some crotchety old man, but I have been in this game for over 20 years. If it's not the computer, then it's card games, television, talking to the boyfriend, or whatever. It all comes out in the end. The reality is that, in the eyes of an employer, it's one frustrating aspect of having employees. I don't care if an employee needs to take some time once in a while for personal things. I'm probably the most leinient employer I know. But all too often I see abuse of opportunity in the workplace and people taking advantage of downtime. I could stay busy 24 hours a day at my store and never run out of things that need to be done.

I don't expect employees to look at the business with the same eyes that the employer does, but they should give a full day's work for a full days pay. I guess I was brought up differently. My dad was 50 when I was born, and he taught me old school. In my observations over the last 30 years of being self-employed I can honestly say that, with each new year I see less and less of the days when, even if the boss wasn't around, employees would give it their all.

 

[garfield]

For those who have access to computers at work . Most employers Restrict adult web sights and gaming sights and so forth .
I completey would agree with such restrictions , in any working enviorment.
As it is one of our supervisors has added ebay to the list of restricked sights .
It's fustrating when i'm not at home and i can't help out Team members with questions from ebay .
I wounder who pissed in that supervisor's corn flakes last week . I mean whats the big deal it's only Ebay ?

Do what I do, change the link to a place on ebay that NOT blocked.
like http://www.ebay.com.au

"au" is for ebay australia

 

[Rich-Allen]

Here is another aspect of this discussion:

Say you have 10 employees... some have been with the company 5 months, some 12 years, and all points in between. These employees have a range or work ethics... some will give you 110%, while others do just what is necessary to get by. If a "slaker" spends 20%, 30%, or 40% of his or her "spare" time at work surfing the Net, and the productive, dedicated employee sees it, you have a problem......

"Here I am working my butt off, barely taking a lunch break, and being a good employee for 10 years while this clown gets to play all day long.

The slacker is a salesperson
The worker bee is a bookkeeper

Oh... and to make matters worse, the salesman makes way more than the bookkeeper since he gets commission on top of a base salary. The morale of the bookkeeper goes in the toilet, and she "whispers" the offense to anyone who will listen. The next thing you know "everybody's doing it", and you have, not one, but 10 employees wasting as much time as possible on the internet. an average of 10 employees a day (retail is open 7 days a week) at, let's say, an average of $15.00 an hour (not to mention worker's comp, matching taxes, etc.). to keep the business operational is:

$150.00 per hour ... x 8 hours a day =
$1200.00 a day .... x 7 days a week
10% loss in productivity (that's being generous) = $120.00 loss per day
$120.00 per day X 361 days (we are closed 4 days a year) =
$43,000 + Loss per year

That comes out of my pocket. That's my money. If you were the employer, and you lost that much money just because people were surfing the net, what would you do? Say it ain't so? If you worked 8 hours today, and you spent 1 hour and 20 minutes surfing the Net, you spent 10% of your work time for personal reasons. I may seem harsh, or like some crotchety old man, but I have been in this game for over 20 years. If it's not the computer, then it's card games, television, talking to the boyfriend, or whatever. It all comes out in the end. The reality is that, in the eyes of an employer, it's one frustrating aspect of having employees. I don't care if an employee needs to take some time once in a while for personal things. I'm probably the most leinient employer I know. But all too often I see abuse of opportunity in the workplace and people taking advantage of downtime. I could stay busy 24 hours a day at my store and never run out of things that need to be done.

I don't expect employees to look at the business with the same eyes that the employer does, but they should give a full day's work for a full days pay. I guess I was brought up differently. My dad was 50 when I was born, and he taught me old school. In my observations over the last 30 years of being self-employed I can honestly say that, with each new year I see less and less of the days when, even if the boss wasn't around, employees would give it their all.

Steve, I can't help but sit here and laugh my *** off. I say the exact same things all the time. Having 26 employees and seeing the amount of money that leaves my checking account every week to both the employee, fedral govt. state govt, workmans comp and general liability insurance is enough to leave a bad taste in your mouth everytime you see non productivity.
Employees really have no idea what it takes to send them home with a check every Friday.

If it were up to me, I would ban everything but crackers and water.

Rich