Web browsing at work: two questions

  1. Are there sites you reserve just for work, so that you’ll always have something new to read if you want?

  2. Are there sites you could read/post at work, but don’t? For example, I don’t post here from work because putting my password cookie on my work computer just seems like admitting I goof off too much.*

*through no fault of my own, I have been idled at work for several days, and I’m getting bored with makework.

  1. There no sites I reserve exclusively for work, but I’ll often skip reading sites if it’s a few hours before work. Like the Dope, I like to save some of it for work to stave off complete boredom.

  2. Other than the obvious, like links here that say NSFW, I’ll go to just about any site from work that I would from home.

Only a couple websites I ever visit at work, because I figure they are safe… SDMB isn’t one of them.

99% of the time I read BBC News, and I do save it for work so I have something to do during slow times. The other 1% of the time I look something up on wikipedia. Actually, I’ve only done this once so far… to read the article on Social Security. I work at a debt management organization so I try to keep all of my online stuff relevant to my job… financial websites, articles on the sub-prime mortgage crisis, etc. It’s a good opportunity to learn about things I wouldn’t otherwise pursue.

In general my online exploits are as limited and as professional as possible.

Bit of a hijack, and I apologize for that, but can you elaborate? To what extent does your company sift through the files on your computer to see how you spend your day? Are they seriously paying attention? Do they have an automated system that checks cookies, sites visited, etc.? I always wonder about this.

To answer your questions, there aren’t any sites I reserve just for work. There are no sites I could go to but avoid nonetheless. There are tons of sites I avoid, of course, and it’s the obvious stuff. But I won’t go to those sites at home, either.

I should preface by saying I almost never do anything non-work-related while I’m at work. I don’t even check my email. There is just too much to do - minutes spent browsing/posting/IM-ing or whatever mean less work done and thus having to spend more time at my desk. I even forget to do important things like call the vet or make travel reservations because I get so caught up. When I hear about people whiling away hours online while on the clock, it just blows my mind. I haven’t been able to do that since I worked at Amazon.com! :stuck_out_tongue:

  1. I will only read theater blogs and the NY Times arts section at work, usually while eating “lunch” (at 3 or 4 or 5pm) at my desk. I don’t do this at home since it’s too work-related.

  2. Well sure, pretty much anything. Nobody’s hovering over my shoulder at my desk but it’s not exactly private either, so I could look at anything Safe For Work, but generally I don’t, for reasons stated above.

Work “spying” is an interesting topic because I recently discovered one of my staff was looking at porn while at work. My inclination was to fire him outright, but by looking at the browser history it appeared to be an anomaly - he does look at personals sites and blogs which is not in itself a problem, and the porno was a link from one of these. Bad judgment, maybe, but since it wasn’t an ongoing pattern, I gave him a warning and left it at that. But I wouldn’t have known about it at all if one of the other staff members (it’s a shared computer) hadn’t accidentally stumbled across the link and complained.

I think many people who surf have uneven work days. I work on all sorts of projects for many departments. Some projects are intense and last a few days; others are long, drawn-out affairs that go on for months or even years. Sometimes I have to stay past midnight, pounding the keyboard; other nights I can leave at five. Sometimes I have to come in on the weekend. The company just generally uses me as best it can to make the most money it can, and I’m cool with that. In return, I get what I can too. If I’ve already put in umpteen hours this week, and today, I don’t have a deadline hanging over my head, well, I might crack open a browser.

I don’t have a computer at home so I only surf at work. I don’t worry about cookies because our institution has a policy that they don’t check, but I don’t go to NSFW stuff. I also erase my cookies and history (though I know it live somewhere else) so it’s not obvious if someone sees my browser stuff.