Yeah because one is so much more productive when bored ;)

jsut use a proxy server.

LOL, proxies are blocked already :)

Try going to (tools), click on (Internet Options), go to the (Connections tab) at the top, Click on the box titled (Lan Settings). Go to the proxy server area and uncheck the box that says (Bypass proxy server for local addresses), as well as the box above it titled (Use a proxy server for your lan).

Then close out your internet.....open it back up. That may allow you to view the site. Only bad part is you have to do this everytime you log onto/restart your computer. This happens on work computers that block specific sites.

It may work, it may not, but give it a try if you can......:)

Lol, thanks for the good intentions, but no, we do not have access to make such changes here. If we did, I would have done it already. I wanted more to start a discussion about this policy of blocking sites with harmless content.

It seems most of us use boredom as an excuse to spend company times on personal interest. But responsible employees would find something work related to work on or ask their supervisors to give them assignment during slow times. As a manager of more than 40 employees, this is the work ethics I want to see all my employees have, but seldom find!

To be fair they are paying you to work, now if you wanted to browse these sites in your lunch break thats fine, but maybe they found people were abusing the privilege?

Let me put it this way... if people don't waste time reading things on the Internet, they'll spend time daydreaming, taking longer bathroom trips, idling by the watercooler or whatever. Most people have limited focus and energy and they'll always find ways to balance their work time with their resting time.

hmm.. what timezone are you in?

The argument that employees should be allowed to slack off by reading forums because otherwise they'll just find a different way to slack off is bad one. 

You pay employees for 8 or however many hours of work a day and they give you 8 or however many hours of work a day.  If you have employees that want to give you 6 hours of work and spend 2 hours of work reading forums then you probably need new employees.  With today's economy, there's no shortage of people looking for work either.