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Forums - Website Topics - Great - my company has blocked vgchartz.com

NJ5 on 24 April 2009
Words Of Wisdom said:
NJ5 said:

I think you misunderstood my point. I'm not saying they "should be allowed to slack off". I'm saying they either do or don't, and the ones that do aren't going to work more because you block one of the ways of slacking off. The only thing that's likely to happen is that they'll be less happy with their job. Micro-managing people to change their habits is very hard.

Incidentally I also believe that the vast majority of employees are not equally productive every day. Do you believe otherwise

 

Ah, so you're saying if an employee is willing to slack off by reading forums that negating their access will not fix the problem.  That makes much more sense.

I don't think skill between two employees should be an excuse to allow one to slack off if that is where you are going with that question. 

You pay someone for 40 hours of their time a week and they give you not 30, not 35, but 40 hours of their time a week.  It's a very simple and reasonable request.

That's not where I was going with the question. My point is that people's productivity varies from day to day, people aren't always fully productive. In their less productive moments they can be clearing their mind for a period of time while reading forums (or daydreaming, or whatever clears their mind), or they can be less happy because some manager decided to control them.

Of course I might be biased due to my background as a software engineer. Working permanently all day is not the best way to work, sometimes you just need to freshen up your mind by looking away from the code or design you're producing. This often results in better productivity when you get back to work. There are also periods where you simply have to wait for the computer to finish calculating something, and it's not enough time to take up another task so the best thing to do is to go check your email, or some news or whatever.

In this case I believe trying to control employees by blocking stuff they like to read is counter-productive and will result in bad will. I realize it may be different for other kinds of jobs.

 



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957

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blackstar on 24 April 2009

how is that great?



bardicverse on 24 April 2009

Time to find a proxy out onto the net...



Words Of Wisdom on 24 April 2009
NJ5 said:

That's not where I was going with the question. My point is that people's productivity varies from day to day, people aren't always fully productive. In their less productive moments they can be clearing their mind for a period of time while reading forums (or daydreaming, or whatever clears their mind), or they can be less happy because some manager decided to control them.

Of course I might be biased due to my background as a software engineer. Working permanently all day is not the best way to work, sometimes you just need to freshen up your mind by looking away from the code or design you're producing. This often results in better productivity when you get back to work. There are also periods where you simply have to wait for the computer to finish calculating something, and it's not enough time to take up another task so the best thing to do is to go check your email, or some news or whatever.

In this case I believe trying to control employees by blocking stuff they like to read is counter-productive and will result in bad will. I realize it may be different for other kinds of jobs.

You don't need 20 minutes of forum surfing every other hour to "clear your mind" IMO.  Most of it is just people trying to rationalize their desire to not work which in turn originates from people not enjoying what they do--a much larger problem.

As for software developers and engineers, there is a huge amount of laziness in that field.  There's a tendency for them to start tasks that will take a long time and rationalize that they're just watching the screen so they may as well just do frivilous things when they could be working on other projects or furthering company goals in some other way.  It's like because the computer is active in one manner that their brain turns off and they suddenly forget how to multitask or *gasp* do something that doesn't require a computer.

If you want to not work the full amount of time your company pays you for and effectively get paid for time you're not working then more power to you.  You should understand that if your company finds out or decides that it's unacceptible that they will take required actions to get you back on task or replace you with someone that will do the work they're paying you to do.



mike_intellivision on 24 April 2009

I am a senior faculty member at a university -- so I get to goof off all time.

Actually, I generally have personal stuff up one screen so if I get a mental block, I can move away from my work.

But I also check my email at nights and on weekends, so I never really leave work. Thus I figure the trade is fair in my instance.

Mike from Morgantown



      


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I like to jump around, and would lead a fairly serene and aimless existence if it weren't for my friends always getting into trouble. I love to help out, even when it puts me at risk. I seem to make friends with people who just can't stay out of trouble.

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NJ5 on 24 April 2009
Words Of Wisdom said:
NJ5 said:

That's not where I was going with the question. My point is that people's productivity varies from day to day, people aren't always fully productive. In their less productive moments they can be clearing their mind for a period of time while reading forums (or daydreaming, or whatever clears their mind), or they can be less happy because some manager decided to control them.

Of course I might be biased due to my background as a software engineer. Working permanently all day is not the best way to work, sometimes you just need to freshen up your mind by looking away from the code or design you're producing. This often results in better productivity when you get back to work. There are also periods where you simply have to wait for the computer to finish calculating something, and it's not enough time to take up another task so the best thing to do is to go check your email, or some news or whatever.

In this case I believe trying to control employees by blocking stuff they like to read is counter-productive and will result in bad will. I realize it may be different for other kinds of jobs.

You don't need 20 minutes of forum surfing every other hour to "clear your mind" IMO.  Most of it is just people trying to rationalize their desire to not work which in turn originates from people not enjoying what they do--a much larger problem.

As for software developers and engineers, there is a huge amount of laziness in that field.  There's a tendency for them to start tasks that will take a long time and rationalize that they're just watching the screen so they may as well just do frivilous things when they could be working on other projects or furthering company goals in some other way.  It's like because the computer is active in one manner that their brain turns off and they suddenly forget how to multitask or *gasp* do something that doesn't require a computer.

If you want to not work the full amount of time your company pays you for and effectively get paid for time you're not working then more power to you.  You should understand that if your company finds out or decides that it's unacceptible that they will take required actions to get you back on task.

Where did those numbers come from? I didn't mention any specific numbers of required off-time... sometimes you can work for hours without end, but not every day. People are not robots, and acting as if they are will burn them out (which is something that often happens in the software industry).

There's a huge amount of laziness in every field I'd say. But it's also true that sometimes the little bits of available time you have when you're waiting for something to build are not enough to get into another task. It's simply not feasible to be 100% busy all the time. Often I find that when debugging code, it pays to stop working for a little bit, and sometimes the answer just pops into your head when you're more relaxed (subconscious thinking or something like that possibly).

Regarding your last paragraph, that varies among companies. In many companies work is more task-oriented than time-oriented, even if people's contracts say otherwise.

 



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957

BengaBenga on 24 April 2009
Words Of Wisdom said:
NJ5 said:

That's not where I was going with the question. My point is that people's productivity varies from day to day, people aren't always fully productive. In their less productive moments they can be clearing their mind for a period of time while reading forums (or daydreaming, or whatever clears their mind), or they can be less happy because some manager decided to control them.

Of course I might be biased due to my background as a software engineer. Working permanently all day is not the best way to work, sometimes you just need to freshen up your mind by looking away from the code or design you're producing. This often results in better productivity when you get back to work. There are also periods where you simply have to wait for the computer to finish calculating something, and it's not enough time to take up another task so the best thing to do is to go check your email, or some news or whatever.

In this case I believe trying to control employees by blocking stuff they like to read is counter-productive and will result in bad will. I realize it may be different for other kinds of jobs.

You don't need 20 minutes of forum surfing every other hour to "clear your mind" IMO.  Most of it is just people trying to rationalize their desire to not work which in turn originates from people not enjoying what they do--a much larger problem.

As for software developers and engineers, there is a huge amount of laziness in that field.  There's a tendency for them to start tasks that will take a long time and rationalize that they're just watching the screen so they may as well just do frivilous things when they could be working on other projects or furthering company goals in some other way.  It's like because the computer is active in one manner that their brain turns off and they suddenly forget how to multitask or *gasp* do something that doesn't require a computer.

If you want to not work the full amount of time your company pays you for and effectively get paid for time you're not working then more power to you.  You should understand that if your company finds out or decides that it's unacceptible that they will take required actions to get you back on task or replace you with someone that will do the work they're paying you to do.

 

But I work much more than the 40 hours I'm paid for, so I think a few minutes of forum surfing every now and then is ok. Besides I get paid to deliver work and I'm judged on the quality of my work. 

Besides in this case it has nothing to do with the company blocking sites to keep people from surfing, Youtube, Facebook, BBC/CNN etc are all still available, bacause my (and ksv's) employer understand that people are more productive if you give them some freedom. The VGC block is because AT&T (who provides the internet service) simply blocks everything with Games in it to (rightfully) prevent people from playing online games.

 



damndl0ser on 24 April 2009

Where there is a will there is a way, and from experience blocking sites does not work. Most of the time the employee spends more time trying to figure a way around the block than the time they would have spent just going to the site already. And in some cases, it takes them extra time every day to do said workaround.

Just like the OP said, now he has to log in remotely from his home computer to access this site. How much extra time will that take daily, weekly or yearly than just letting him goto the site strait up? I would be willing to bet that the work around will take at the very least 5 more minutes a day to do. So all in all the company now loses 5 additional minutes everytime he wants too surf to this site.

Blocking legal sites like this is not the answer.

My last job was in the IT field, and my former employee had no problems letting its people play around a little. But if the individual let it get out of hand they would fire them fairly quickly and all of the employee's knew this so it was never a problem.



"If you've got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow."

Quote by- The Imortal John Wayne, the original BADASS!

 

 

 

killeryoshis on 25 April 2009

jobs are boring



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theword on 25 April 2009
NJ5 said:
Words Of Wisdom said:
NJ5 said:

I think you misunderstood my point. I'm not saying they "should be allowed to slack off". I'm saying they either do or don't, and the ones that do aren't going to work more because you block one of the ways of slacking off. The only thing that's likely to happen is that they'll be less happy with their job. Micro-managing people to change their habits is very hard.

Incidentally I also believe that the vast majority of employees are not equally productive every day. Do you believe otherwise

 

Ah, so you're saying if an employee is willing to slack off by reading forums that negating their access will not fix the problem.  That makes much more sense.

I don't think skill between two employees should be an excuse to allow one to slack off if that is where you are going with that question. 

You pay someone for 40 hours of their time a week and they give you not 30, not 35, but 40 hours of their time a week.  It's a very simple and reasonable request.

That's not where I was going with the question. My point is that people's productivity varies from day to day, people aren't always fully productive. In their less productive moments they can be clearing their mind for a period of time while reading forums (or daydreaming, or whatever clears their mind), or they can be less happy because some manager decided to control them.

Of course I might be biased due to my background as a software engineer. Working permanently all day is not the best way to work, sometimes you just need to freshen up your mind by looking away from the code or design you're producing. This often results in better productivity when you get back to work. There are also periods where you simply have to wait for the computer to finish calculating something, and it's not enough time to take up another task so the best thing to do is to go check your email, or some news or whatever.

In this case I believe trying to control employees by blocking stuff they like to read is counter-productive and will result in bad will. I realize it may be different for other kinds of jobs.

 

I do some programming myself and as you said I do occasionally browse misc news and forums on the job to clear my mind.   Needless to say, I probably enjoy this type of activity as much as you do.  However, you need to put yourself into  the position of your company.  For every 2, 3 employees who browse forum responsibly, there are 7, 8 others who abuse it.  Some of our friends here even admit of spending half a days of company time on this stuff.   So perhaps the ban hammer was put in place for those 7,8 others peers and not you.   Your best option is to educate your peers on this topic for a more free future.