Quote:
Originally Posted by sethwas
So I can tell you a bit from the employer side, and from a firm that 'requires' internet usage for employees to do their jobs.
As an employer, you 'must' lock down your systems. This has nothing to do with goofing off, but actual security issues. And none of this can be malicious from the employee's perspective, but if they inadvertently go to the wrong website or for whatever reason get something that slips through the cracks, that employee accidentally did something bad and the cost of fixing is usually very high.
So for this reason there should be very strong filtration (at a firewall level) of what's coming in. So too software that watches what programs you run ordinarily to make sure they aren't doing anything fishy (like Traps for example opening a PDF but it isn't a PDF and now acrobat is messing up your system).
This of course is separate from something like an antivirus or antispyware, and keeping your PC's up to date with the latest software versions to prevent security holes in the first place.
All that stuff is just good practice. And the company 'must' tell the employees about these things for safety. Especially if there is any intellectual property on the systems or payment management. If a firm isn't doing this, and something bad happens, who knows how being flippant would help or hurt their ability to resolve. Practically, legally, and financially.
Now, with respect to what websites they do and do not allow, that's entirely separate and depends on the firm.
Lots of places just block specific sites, like social media which is the largest distraction, or gambling. Others block alcohol/firearms, and some block the adult stuff. Some have philosophical reasons why, others religious, and some just blindly check boxes for content they don't want out and about.
Like others have said, it's best to keep personal stuff off work computers regardless. Bring a tablet if need be to connect to wifi (guest wifi? it should exist at a decent firm) to listen to youtube or whatever.
Blanket blocking isn't really done any more because it actually 'hurts' productivity. For 2 reasons, 1) it's annoying to have to access a website you need for your job and you can't and that slows down productivity (the method to allow it is usually cumbersome and slow), and 2) it was shown people work better if they have moments they can 'escape' and then come back. However, like others have noted, there will always be a few that take advantage of this.
Seth
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Seems the best course of action as an employer would be to allow sites, but monitor use. Then you could easily see who is lacking productivity and on FB all day and get rid of them.