# Is browsing "Personal Sites" (like the Dope) on your break at work poor etiquette? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 27, 2011, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-browsing-personal-sites-like-the-dope-on-your-break-at-work-poor-etiquette/590479 "2011-07-27T13:21:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-browsing-personal-sites-like-the-dope-on-your-break-at-work-poor-etiquette/590479/61 "2011-07-29T16:12:29Z")
If you couldn’t come up with the right phrasing, then perhaps you need more downtime too! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-browsing-personal-sites-like-the-dope-on-your-break-at-work-poor-etiquette/590479/62 "2011-07-29T19:01:13Z")
> [@perfectparanoia](#): > > I also think there are different types of jobs out there. > > I work in third tier support for a software company. That means I get the questions/problems that other people couldn’t figure out. So, when I am stuck on something, I will browse the dope or read the news. Usually, after a few minutes of turning off my brain, the solution (or at least something that will point to the solution) will come to me out of the fog. I can’t force it. > > I have a counterpart who will bank her head against a problem when she is stuck instead of letting it marinate. Guess what? She is twice as slow in solving problems as I am. Same here. It is important to let your subconscious work on things, and doing something totally different does this. I write a chunk of code, set what the next one should do in my mind, browse the Dope, and then go back to my editor window and write the next chunk fully formed. I will go for a walk to the shopping center across the street if I’m really stuck, but that takes 20 minutes and I can look at the Dope for five - plus stop whenever I see the answer. Assuming you are getting your work done, worrying about overusing company computers is only reasonable if you are in a time warp and using an old mainframe where you get charged by the minute. I do compute intensive stuff, and one run with a buggy program wastes more compute resources than I can do personally in a year. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-browsing-personal-sites-like-the-dope-on-your-break-at-work-poor-etiquette/590479/63 "2011-07-30T14:34:53Z")
I see no one’s brought up the obvious yet, what if surfing the Dope is part of your job? And don’t say it can’t be, because it is for me. That’s right, y’all make my job easier. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-browsing-personal-sites-like-the-dope-on-your-break-at-work-poor-etiquette/590479/64 "2011-07-30T21:22:01Z")
I browse personal sites all the time at work and no one blinks. The boss does this too. The more errands and entertainment I can get in at work, the more time I can spend there. I also use the refrigerator and microwave for personal meals. When I’m up all night running kinetics experiments on the NMR spectrometer I’ll watch movies while I work up the data. That way I can pull a 30 hour workday, have 5 meals, and get a few hours of entertainment in, all without wasting travel time or putzing around at home where I can’t get work done. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-browsing-personal-sites-like-the-dope-on-your-break-at-work-poor-etiquette/590479.md?page=3)