Is surfing the internet on your company's time ripping off your employer in the employees opinion?

I'm writing an article on this topic and I want more research so I'm posting this question here in Askville. Asked by blogMerit 52 months ago Similar Questions: surfing internet company's time ripping employer employees opinion Recent Questions About: surfing internet company's time ripping employer employees opinion Business.

Similar Questions: surfing internet company's time ripping employer employees opinion Recent Questions About: surfing internet company's time ripping employer employees opinion.

It depends As a computer programmer I am often surfing the net from work. Sometimes I'm Googling work related topics, sometimes I'm shifting from Task A to Task B and need a few minutes to purge the "work" area of my brain, sometimes I'm keeping the eyes, forebrain, and hands busy while the boys in the back-brain are figuring something out, and sometimes I'm just indulging the "shiny! " instinct.

Although I haven't done any scientific tracking, I have experience in both the "surf as long as you're on schedule" and the "surfing is stealing" work environment, and feel more productive in the former. There's a lot more to coding than lines per hour. The rule for carpenters is "measure twice, cut once", and for coders "think twice, code once".

OTOH, I was once in a data entry job where very little thought was required, and time surfing the Internet would be directly affecting my productivity. In that case, I think the employer has a much better case. Basically, I'd say that if you can measure success in units of output per unit time, then surfing should happen only on breaks; otherwise, do whatever you like as long as the boss is happy with your work.

I didn't address the idea of surfing being a financial drain on the employer because it's basically bunk. If the management cannot manage the employees such that non-work-related surfing is showing up in bandwidth costs, they are addressing the symptoms not the problem by blaming the InterWeb. Sources: Personal experience in large and small, public and private sector organizations.

Yes When I made an employment contract, I essentially rented a certain amount of my time, knowledge and skills to my employer. Doing personal things during that time are stealing as I am then providing less than the agreed upon value in return for salary and benefits.

Well Duh! Yes Does your job description include surfing the net on non-business related sites? Is that what they are paying you for?

If you do it on company time, yes, it's ripping them off.

In the employee's mind, no. I surf during the day, and do askville. But not all the time.

I think it's important to give your mind a break from what it's doing, and playing on the internet is my "smoke break". Also, considering that I generally work over 40 hours a week, and my salary only covers 40 of those hours, I am actually recovering some of my lost time.

My current employer has no way for employees to acess the 401K plan.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.