I’m kinda puzzled, because although I didn’t work for long (I did temp work in a bank, and some government work), I never saw anyone on the internet, and indeed, I believe most people hardly had the time to surf the 'net, much less post obsessively on the dope. 
As you may gather, I’m not 'merkin. How many of you have the freedom (and time) to surf the net at work? I mean, shouldn’t you be, like, working? 
Is surfing the net at work common practise, or part of worker’s benefits, or what?
One of the joys of a conference period, as a teacher, is that if I have all my grading done, I can spend the time as I wish, which is usually here. 
HAHAHAHA!!! WORK AT WORK?? HAH!
Sorry.
I think many offices have the benefit of trust and also- privacy. No one sees who is on the computer because no one can see your screen. I keep the SDMB up practically all day long and just switch back to it when I have a free moment. I get my work done…
Many of my friends and co-workers are always on the internet. Somedays are slower than others- somedays your on the net more often than others.
All I know is- I couldnt get thru the workday without breaks to scope the net.
Huh?
Don’t you realize the type of jobs people do varies immensely.
I, for instance, look after an internet betting system. Once the tracks for betting are ‘up’ there’s not much to do, if anything at all…
Since my job is in a hospital the workload varies tremendously.
I might be busy as heck for a couple of hours then suddenly have nothing to do for the next couple. Plus there’s only so much cleaning, restocking, maintainence, etc. a person can take. Unlike certain of my coworkers[sup]*[/sup] I need a little mental stimulation during downtime and here it is.
*who seems quite content staring off into space with his mouth agape
Right now I’m waiting for a bunch of files to copy from one server to another. Nothing to do but sit here. Might as well read the Dope.
I’m a Mac repair tech, part of my job is to fully test machines to make sure everything works, one of the tests is internet connectivity (modem, ethernet, AirPort), so in addition to being paid to tear machines apart and put them together, i’m also paid to surf the net 
Another net surfer at work. I’m a buyer and spend a lot of time researching products on the net. I also keep the Dope opened on a seperate browser and switch back and forth between the two. Its only fair after all. Even with all the reading of the Dope that I do I still don’t take as much break time as the smokers do.
When I started my job, I told my employer that I required Internet access, which I do, so they fixed up my small district office with an Internet connection. Most people in the office did not have a computer then (~4 years ago).
We had no connection with the headquarters mainframe for our PCs (we had one AS/400 terminal that nobody used), no onsite IT people, and thus no IT oversight. During that time I noticed the other people who had 'net connections surfing quite a bit, and I’d drop in here from time to time.
Then it was decided to get everyone a computer. That also entailed connecting us to the servers in the headquarters, and with that came IT oversight. No policy has been issued (odd for a company that does regular employee handbook updates), but I haven’t been to the Dope from work since.
My colleagues and I have many legitimate work related needs for Internet access, which we use. And I’ll still take a peek at the Drudge Report, other news sites and stock prices, mainly during lunch time. I do still see other people surfing a bit, and nobody’s ever been chastised.
The nature of my job, though, is that I never have downtime, so I don’t need to be surfing the 'net at work, anyway.
I had the Internet because I needed it. Then they rearanged my job and said I couldn’t have it. Then they changed software and it’s required to make the software work. Go figure.
I only surf ebay for a few minutes a day and maybe some news stories if something is up. If I see 10 minutes a day I’m lucky and I figure that covers normal rest breaks. The office is for work and work is why they pay me so work is what I do.
I have internet access for work. I don’t surf on it at all, really. I got into trouble at my last job for that, and when I started at my current job I broke myself of the habit because I wanted a fresh start. If I have a few spare moments (haha!) I might take a look at a news site. But no, I don’t read the SDMB or LiveJournal or personal email from my work computer.
I work in rental property management. The first week or so of every month is very, very busy. The other three weeks I mostly surf the Net.
I run printer tests at my job. There is a lot of idle time while running the tests, so in between the times I perform specific tasks related to my testing I’m usually here reading and posting to the SDMB.
I work at a college bookstore, so our workload varies tremendously throughout the year. When customer traffic is slow and all our tasks are done, the management has no problem with employees surfing the Internet, reading or doing their homework.
My job involves a lot of data entry, so I take period breaks to read stuff online, though I don’t read the Straight Dope from work. That way, I’m giving my hands a rest, but I’m still at the keyboard and ready to resume typing faster than I would be if I got up and went to chat with someone or read a magazine article.
OK I’m not a Merkin, but I’m at work and I’m here now so…
Everyone here has web access but we all seem to be pretty good at restraining from simply goofing around on the net all day.
I don’t “surf” during the working day. I have a couple of sites (like here) I’ll jump to if I have a moment. The way work comes in here if you’re busy you’re really busy, no time for pillocking about. When work is slow/light it’s bit more relaxed.
And anyway the Dope site is down every (British) morning isn’t it?
I’ve often wondered about this very thing–where do dopers work that they are able to post in the thousands? I am a mostly a lurker because at work I just don’t have time to post much, and when I get home, I am a Dad. When I have a student teacher, like I did in the fall, or when I have the students writing or reading quietly, as I have the past few days, I get a chance to post.
I sometimes wonder if the school district will eventually yank the internet from us, saying that it’s a waste of teacher’s time. For me, it’s a great place to get material for class. Lots of sites for downloading literature that I can’t afford to buy. I teach Shakespeare in the fall and download the whole thing; it’s great. The Straight Dope is a bonus. Working with kids all day, the dope is adult contact, however vicarious, that I really love.
I work in a small office with varying amounts of ‘downtime’. Mostly I leave windows up and switch back and forth. I need a sanity break every so often.
Seeing as I’m the only one whose knowlege of computers is above average and the only one with administrator access to our network, I’m not too concerned.
This is something that differs quite a bit from job to job and company to company. I’m a biochemist working in an academic environment. I HAVE to have internet access and estimate that I spend about 15 hours a week online at work. Most of that time, I’m online for legitimate work related research, but I do spend a bit of time reading Fark, personal e-mails, goofing off. In my previous job, as a researcher in a pharmaceutical company, company policy restricted internet access to our own company web site for the majority of employees. To do any actual internet research involved a trip to the company library, about 5 miles away, to use the computers there. As a result, we weren’t able to effectively keep up to date on relevant research and techniques, and I’d spend hours at home trying to research things that I should have been able to do at home. This was about 6 years ago, so hopefully their policy has changed dramatically.
I, like most of the posters here, do have a varying workload that sometimes allows me to read these boards and post to them during work hours. At some point in the future I might get in trouble for this, but since I quit smoking eight months ago I’ve need some periodic diversion from my regular tasks.
That being said, at my previous job, my company was purchased by a much larger company, and I was laid off, but offered a retention bonus if I stuck around until the transition was complete. Well, the transition was six months long, and I pretty much had nothing to do after the first six weeks or so. However, since I felt committed to reporting to work every day in order to earn my bonus, I came in every day and surfed the net for 8 hours, answering an average of 3 work-related emails and 5 work-related phone calls a day. This went on for 4 and a half months! After a while, I started to get really bored! I was really happy when my termination date came, I’ll tell you.
I work for a telecom company monitoring T3s and above for alarms & troubleshooting T1s that are called in. I work graves & without the internet, it would be real difficult to stay awake all night. I spend about 4 or 5 hours a night here & in my 4+ years, about 99% of my posts have been made from work. (including this one). Even with internet access I’m bored to tears a lot of the time.