Comments on: Workplace blog filtering http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20051024/2531/ Technology, music, video, art, news, reviews and muse on the web Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:04:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2 By: Adam http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20051024/2531/#comment-30298 Adam Mon, 24 Oct 2005 21:46:01 +0000 http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20051024/2531/#comment-30298 The smartest companies I've worked for have had basically the following Internet / Web policy: - We pay you to get work done, and to get it done in a timely and professional manner. - We trust you as an adult. - We know that you sometimes stay late, work through lunch, or even log in from home to finish up work tasks. - We'd be assholes if we begrudged you a few moments to check sports scores, e-mail your son from Hotmail, etc. - And besides, we know that there's a lot of spontaneous learning that goes on, even from "fun" sites like BoingBoing and Things that Make You Go Hmm... ;) - Did we mention that we're all adults here, and that the bottom line is that you do good work? ------ Most companies with very strict Internet policies are, IMHO, probably wankers. My fav is Ebay, or at least one department of that company in which managers threatened to IMMEDIATELY FIRE anyone using the Internet for personal interests (e.g., looking up the local weather, pulling up a map to a diner for that evening, etc.) So sad, so shortsighted! At the end of the day, strict Internet policies are merely an inappropriate substitute for hiring responsible, mature workers and overseeing them with thoughtful, effective managers. The smartest companies I’ve worked for have had basically the following Internet / Web policy:
- We pay you to get work done, and to get it done in a timely and professional manner.
- We trust you as an adult.
- We know that you sometimes stay late, work through lunch, or even log in from home to finish up work tasks.
- We’d be assholes if we begrudged you a few moments to check sports scores, e-mail your son from Hotmail, etc.
- And besides, we know that there’s a lot of spontaneous learning that goes on, even from “fun” sites like BoingBoing and Things that Make You Go Hmm… ;)
- Did we mention that we’re all adults here, and that the bottom line is that you do good work?

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Most companies with very strict Internet policies are, IMHO, probably wankers. My fav is Ebay, or at least one department of that company in which managers threatened to IMMEDIATELY FIRE anyone using the Internet for personal interests (e.g., looking up the local weather, pulling up a map to a diner for that evening, etc.) So sad, so shortsighted!

At the end of the day, strict Internet policies are merely an inappropriate substitute for hiring responsible, mature workers and overseeing them with thoughtful, effective managers.

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