How much time do you waste in work surfing the Internet?

Zascar

I'm sure a large proportion of us work jobs where we sit in front a computer for a large part of the day, but how much time do you spend surfing the Internet for your own personal interestes when you should really be working?

Over the alst few days, just being back from Christmas break etc I have done a shockingly small amount of actual work and spent far to much time surfing the web and on message boards. In my old job they blocked all sites like webmail, message boards and online games etc. Probbaly a good thing. In my new job I have free reign and find myself procrastinating from the things i should be working on and persuing my online interstes instead! If I look abound at everyone else in the company, everyone is guilty of it to some degree, so the amount of money the company looses due to this must be incredible!

So how much time do you 'waste' online?

scojones

"Waste"? The time is not wasted!

Heinrich

Never surfed in the job, ever. I have had broadband for the last 6 years and prefer to keep my stuff private and not jeopardise my livlihood.

Mind you it's sometimes interesting to see the self righteous indignation of some of the more prolific posters.

Busterpuss

since ive come back to work (tuesday) i have done nothing but surf the net, paid my motor tax, checked my bank accounts, googled stuff, etc etc been on in here. normally tho as its not quiet maybe a couple of hours a day combined...

i have sent one fax, scanned a document and printed off a couple of emails since i came back:eek:

Zascar

sjones wrote:

"Waste"? The time is not wasted!

Well, you are not wasting your own time but if you are on 'company time' you are definitely wasting theirs, as they are paying you to do a job you are not doing!

Miss Fluff

sjones wrote:

"Waste"? The time is not wasted!

I completely agree. When I work I really give it socks so surfing the net/being on messenger etc affords me a welcome break before gearing myself up for the next burst of energy.

Great for hangover days too

I only see it as a waste of time if you are not productive in your work to start with. All employees could sit there and not check the internet once and still manage to be completely useless lumps.

robinph

The last week I've actually spent a few hours less than usual surfing for non work related stuff than I usually would each day. That's because I've not been bothering to turn up until late though and then I sneak out early as well.

Nalz

last 2 flippin days cas work is so flippin quiet!

digitally-yours

Its better than going on 10 smoke breaks a day :eek: :eek:

it pisses me off that people who smoke can go for smoke and those who dont smoke cant take even 5 minutes :rolleyes:

now hows that fair ? can some one explain

I use internet for personal purpose for about 3 or 4 hours a day given that i am in control of the job being done which i am supposed to do at the end of the day

i dont see personal browsing being a problem as long as it dosent affect your performance

Ruu_Old

I use it when I want because I don't work for "the man". Anyway I posted this in Workeh/Jabs a few weeks ago. From rte.ie new for more reading/wasting time on the internet.

Irish businesses are facing a growing problem over e-mail and internet abuse by employees, according to the Small Firms Association.

The SFA has warned employers to be more vigilant when it comes to their internet and e-mail policies. The SFA estimated that abuses could be costing Irish employers as much as €575m per year.

According to research by the SFA, the majority of small Irish companies have no anti-abuse policy in place and are vulnerable to this type of abuse.

The assistant director of the SFA, Avine McNally, said that many companies could potentially face future legal action if they fail to have adequate safeguards in place to protect their staff, customers, and the general public from this problem.

She added it is vital for companies to put in place a comprehensive e-mail and internet abuse policy, which sets out rules for personal use, and prohibits access to offensive material.

godtabh

If there is deadlines to be meet then I dont but if I'm at lose end then why not.

admiralofthefleet

between the hours of 10pm and 6am i am hardly off the internet, usually on boards but i have had to cut it down lately cause im getting very busy in work.

rogue-entity

I work at a supermarket.. so no internet access there.. that said, I have been known to pop up to a quiet area of the store room, out of view of any cameras and browse the content on 3 or BBC news for about half an hour if its quiet.

Steyr

See what im wondering now as i dont do an Office job is how can you get away with it ? Do you not have a supervisor giving you stuff to do/complete? Do you not get more when finished your first task etc? ? ? Id never do an yyyaawwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnn Office job....

zuutroy

When I was working for In-Hell I spent at least 90% of my time on the net, thank to a combination of them not showing me what to do and me not giving a ****e. Managed about 9 months before they decided I needed a talking to, at which point I handed in my notice. Was nice to get paid the guts of a years salary for absolutely nothing!
Back in research now where I'm essentially my own boss, I usually work fairly intensively for an hour or two at a time with net breaks of a few mins in between.

User45701

i spend a decent bit but not as much as i would like surfing the net

Geek Nose

Zascar wrote:

I'm sure a large proportion of us work jobs where we sit in front a computer for a large part of the day, but how much time do you spend surfing the Internet for your own personal interestes when you should really be working?

Over the alst few days, just being back from Christmas break etc I have done a shockingly small amount of actual work and spent far to much time surfing the web and on message boards. In my old job they blocked all sites like webmail, message boards and online games etc. Probbaly a good thing. In my new job I have free reign and find myself procrastinating from the things i should be working on and persuing my online interstes instead! If I look abound at everyone else in the company, everyone is guilty of it to some degree, so the amount of money the company looses due to this must be incredible!

So how much time do you 'waste' online?

You're obviously an indispensable & valuable asset to your company, and would be last to go if redundancies occurred....
The fact that you have so much time to 'waste' and doodle on the net, obviously means you're not a necessary member of staff, if nobody even notices!

Mrbrianmolko

I do feck all in my job, theres nothing to be done. i dont know why they even hired me. Therefore I spend about 75% of my time on the net. Rumours flying about the place now that there will be an internet audit at the end of every month. SO now i just spend the first 15mins of work collecting up lots of stuff to read, then spend the day reading it. Im even reasearching new jobs im going to apply to on their time.

I know which sites are blocked in work, so if theres anything worth reading on them, i copy it all to an email at home and email it to my work email address.

Boredom drives me to do such things.

Zonko

Steyr wrote:

See what im wondering now as i dont do an Office job is how can you get away with it ? Do you not have a supervisor giving you stuff to do/complete? Do you not get more when finished your first task etc? ? ? Id never do an yyyaawwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnn Office job....

Most offices don't have supervisers as such, that walk around and check what you're doing. You get given a job to do, and you're just expected to do it for the most part. I've seen you post in Miltary, you're in the army, yeah?

Kwekubo

If you're on Firefox then head to http://www.pageaddict.com and download the extension, it itemises the sites you spend the most time on and you can group sites together to make graphs and bar charts showing just how much time you waste

Steyr

Zonko wrote:

I've seen you post in Miltary, you're in the army, yeah?

Army Reserve Defence Force and a Sales Assistant ( My nickname is the name of the Assault Rifle used by the Irish Armed Forces ), Hoping to go to An Garda Siochana.

If you dont have a supervisor etc then just what the fcuk do you know what to do? Surely you must be told xyz has to be completed today? If not then just how does work get "completed" surely you must be told what to do because if thats not the case aint it just a waste of money for the company and nothing would get done thus making the company lose money which would equal less wages in your bank account?

Nightwish

I dont spend a lot of time on the net but I do log on about 6 times a day to read things, for a few mins if I'm bored. I know IT are watching us at the moment as they are scanning the computers daily and are logging the internet history.

Zonko

Steyr wrote:

Army Reserve Defence Force and a Sales Assistant ( My nickname is the name of the Assault Rifle used by the Irish Armed Forces ), Hoping to go to An Garda Siochana.

If you dont have a supervisor etc then just what the fcuk do you know what to do? Surely you must be told xyz has to be completed today? If not then just how does work get "completed" surely you must be told what to do because if thats not the case aint it just a waste of money for the company and nothing would get done thus making the company lose money which would equal less wages in your bank account?

Hierarchy in most cases. You sort of have a sub-boss who gives you work, and when you complete it you report back to him. If you have problems tell your sub-boss, or your co-workers. Although generally teh sub-boss is just a co-worker doing the same thing as you, except they give you work. I'm not saying there aren't supervisers at all in offices, just no where I've ever seen. A happy worker is a productive worker.

robinph

Steyr wrote:

If you dont have a supervisor etc then just what the fcuk do you know what to do? Surely you must be told xyz has to be completed today? If not then just how does work get "completed" surely you must be told what to do because if thats not the case aint it just a waste of money for the company and nothing would get done thus making the company lose money which would equal less wages in your bank account?

As I only have stuff to do when things break and as I was so fantastic at setting it all up perfectly in the first place I now have nothing to do most of the time. If I get really bored I might deliberately break some computer for a laugh though but it would have to be a really slow day on the interweb for that to happen.

nlgbbbblth

digitally-yours wrote:

Its better than going on 10 smoke breaks a day :eek: :eek:

yeah, I'll use that excuse if anyone ever castigates me for surfing.

all in I might spend 30 - 40 minutes in total per day at work on the internet
browsing from home is far more enjoyable and is more common than a lot of people seem to realise.

Kintarō Hattori

Ohh I spend too much time on it for sure. I'm reguarly on here having a read and replying where necessary. I also spend far too much time on ebay. I'm lucky though as part of my job requires looking after the companies website so I have free reign where I go on the internet as I reguarly have to research new products.

I'm also incredibly lucky as I sit in an open plan office but my section is cordened off from everyone else and I sit with my back to the wall, so I can see and hear them coming but they can't see what I'm doing.

So I end up spending far too much time on the net and not enough time working!

jrey1981

Tend to dip in to various sites such as news, boards etc. just keeping an eye on things.

Then again I use the net a lot in the course of my work and thankfully there's no-one keeping an eye on me.

If a deadline is approaching then it's a different story. I manage to curb the non-essential browsing until I'm finished.

Xavi6

Well I've no internet access at work unfortunately. When I was working in a shop in Chicago though my till was fully hooked for some reason. Had great craic talkin to the boys back home for my eight hour shifts!

Also just found out that the McDonalds right next door to my current job has wifi that you can use while you eat. Pay a few euro and get an access code. Wonder if was to get the code once and bring in my laptop would the frequency stretch into my office, i.e. free internet in work!!

de5p0i1er

I got a back problem at the moment and can't do feck all at work, they still have me in here doing nothing instead of resting at home, there trying to avoid paying me sick leave.

the whole year inn

If your working and still on boards and getting paid who cares, happy days!, In my part time job there is one wireless connection but has wep key to log on, so fu(ked but still can watch any dvd and listen to what ever music we want, theres no manager!Some times I cant belive I am geting paid for what I do!

Heyes

Trilla wrote:

last 2 flippin days cas work is so flippin quiet!

thats my excuse however change 2 days to 3 months :rolleyes:

Mrs_Doyle

I always have google talk open, and if I get a notification from bebo, or boards, I will click the linky and have a look.

Some days I spend at least half the day just dossing online, and other days I am too busy to even check my emails.

scojones

Zascar wrote:

Well, you are not wasting your own time but if you are on 'company time' you are definitely wasting theirs, as they are paying you to do a job you are not doing!

I do a very good job. My work is never affected by my online activities. If it was then this would be a different matter, and your point would be valid. It's actually impossible for me to make better use of my time. I get my work done and my employer is extremely happy with me. If it was interfering with my work then that would be a different case altogether.

Flukey

Very little at work, but a lot at home (like right now).

Angels

I've just spotted this thread & thought to myself that i spend most of my day online well 3-4 hours in my 8 hour working day, but this is when works get quite. Well January is a very quite month so it could be 4-5 hours!

Maybe i need to go offline for a bit ha!