Anyone ever have any grief for surfing the web when working?

[jmo21]

I've worked in various places, permie and contracting with varying levels of site blocking.

Only 1 place did they actively keep track/monitor, and that was a small software house with an owner who scrutinized everything. At the time I think they were living close to the wire money-wise.

It was during the 2002 world cup, and lots of us had the BBC's desktop score tracker software installed.

Within a couple of days all web access to the BBC was blocked as the app was hitting the bbc so much.

Current contract site blocks blogs for some reason which is a pain when searching for answers to tricky problems.

[Spacecadet]

I always wonder about this. I see a lot of people posting on here (me included) during the day which I assume means your all in work.

Anyone ever have any grief (including non-renewals etc) because client worked out you were wasting 'some' time?

Obviously, not talking about dodgy surfing which is obviously going to get you into trouble...

Or dont they care as long as you get things done?

The only time I've had grief when surfing was on my first contract, the company banned the entire web except for anything on their "white list" which included Google.
The MD saw me looking at Google Maps (it was my first week and I was looking for better routes), complained to my manager who then had to give me a formal bollocking.

Perversely, on my 3rd contract, which paid over double what the first one paid, not only did the programme manager not seem to care when I occasionally rolled in at 11am but would also sneak up behind me to check my browsing as I generally read "more interesting stuff" than he could find.

[psychocandy]

A difficult one indeed. I think I'll err on the side of caution for a while as someone suggested here....

Its a big company so I dont imagine they actively check everyones browsing but you never know.

[Cliphead]

I've seen it used on one site as an excuse to get rid of a couple of contractors. The rest of us could browse as much as we liked.

[doodab]

One of the advantages of working in Germany is that they aren't allowed to keep track.

Just as well really

[original PM]

what I've found is that nobody bothers about the surfing - until such time as they are looking for an excuse to get rid and then they will trawl through the web history.

SO if you keep delivering and don't rock the boat you are normally ok but the key is keep delivering.....
although some sys admins take their jobs far to seriously....

[doodab]

Is that a specialist version?

No that's ****book. According to my spam.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Regularly moaned at but never canned for it. I wonder if all the people who take so much interest in trying to micro-manage might benefit from attending to their own work a bit more rather than poking their noses into mine I thought it was 2011 not 1900 Mr Gradgrind.

[psychocandy]

Currently consigned to 8 hours a day reading manuals - its 2nd day.

I'd go mad if I didnt have access to the internet so its to the clients advantage. ;-)

[Scotgal]

As a permie I spend probably 80% of my time on the internet, on various technology blogs/forums. They are all related to the job so I don't see any problem, I might visit the odd non IT site (e.g. Tattoo website) but I keep that to a minimum.