Poll: Office Computers Mostly Used For Porn & Romance

[matcom]

<snip>

MIAMI (Reuters) - America's office-cubicle dwellers may be burning up the keyboards, but it's not necessarily a paycheck they're chasing.

Nearly one in four U.S. workers with Internet access at work has used company computers to visit sexually explicit Web sites, participate in steamy chat rooms or swap romantic messages, according to a poll released on Tuesday by employment and labor law attorneys.

Forty-three percent of respondents said they believed sex-oriented online activities hurt work productivity, but 24 percent said they had used a company computer in pursuit of sex or romance.

"This poll sheds new light on the number of employees who are misusing workplace computers for romantic or sexual purposes," said Charles Huddleston, co-chair of the employment law team at the Atlanta law firm Arnall Golden Gregory LLP.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=573&e=5&u=/nm/20040211/od_nm/online_dc

[Toronto Ron]

1. Risky...

That's freakin' nuts: It's so easy for your employer to monitor your Internet activity!

[BigMcLargehuge]

3. hey baby, what are you wearing?

seriously... anyone who surfs from work for that kind of stuff is ASKING to be fired if the network manager has any smarts at all they can log everything goin out the router.

But then, tools like "anonymizer" take much of the risk away provided the network manager doesn't block it.

[ixion]

2. that is a complete crock

Anyone who has ever worked in a office cubicle environment knows that a) there are people watching the websites they visit and b) there is no privacy to surf porn sites, and c) saying that a work box is 'mostly' used for porn and romance implies that no work is getting done. And anyone who uses a computer for work, and is actually paid to do so, knows darn well that mostly WORK is done on a work box.

That's my experience at least. Who are these people polling and what is the company they work for that offers enough privacy and lack of work load to accomodate?

:eyes:

[RebelOne]

7. You are absolutely correct.

Most large corporations, such as the one I work for, monitor your Internet activity.

[Goldom]

4. "One in four"

Is not -most-. And I bet most :P of those were pop up ads or spam email. It all looks the same to an admin just monitering the domains accessed.

[FloridaPat]

5. Every place I've ever worked we used the computers to

see the news, the sports, and look for jobs. Where do they get these people they poll?

[RebelOne]

6. That's my question, too.

[beyurslf]

8. They must not work my company

They monitor our web useage. And will terminate your net connection if it is inappropriate.