May 17, 2008

[My Own Stuff] Ya "cyberslacker"!

Just came across this article about what's acceptable or not when it comes to internet usage during work. I agree that people should not be slacking off at work chatting to people on FaceBook/Bebo all the time, but that stands to reason. It's like you would get up to get coffee and bump into someone in the kitchen at work, you chat a bit, that is fine. I feel in moderation at work is fine, what annoys me are the games playing on the social networking sites more than anything else. Now don't get me wrong, I fall in the category of chatting people on IM, but I set my status to busy, so I don't get bugged all the time by friends, and I use it to look up stuff, mainly work-related. I do use it for personal banking (excuse of using part of the banking hour during work), quick check of my newsfeeds. I aim for lunchtime to do most of my catching up on news, if possible, that is why I sit at my desk eating lunch, and yes, on occassions, I do eat with my mates. Everyone has done it, check the emails their friends sends, and clicked on those links. I have learnt not to watch any videos, images sent at work, and made sure people I know tag the stuff as "NSFW" or "Not Safe For Work" on the subject line emails. I definitely stay away from those until I get home. It's the moderation, my excuse is that I need some time to ramp up when I first get into work. The main thing is, get your work done in time.

The last companies I worked in allowed the use of IM, it is really handy at work to get people's attention when it comes to asking questions, showing people how to do something,etc. I found using IM at work productive anyway. So according to the article,

[...] a ‘cyberslacker’, a term used for a lazy, unproductive employee who spends half the day checking Facebook and browsing eBay.

The report gave an example of a college graduate who was so use to being online 24/7, chatting to people, buying things, etc., that when she was in the work environment for the first time, she felt restricted. Ultimately she was banned from using the internet in the office and needs permission if she needs to use it for work-related tasks. What is interesting here is the transition of college to work environment. It was so different when I graduated back in '99, internet surfing was a pain at home and in college, it was dog-slow, so it was not a problem for me. Nowadays, I see students in the computer labs using Bebo and Facebook. It's so bad that some colleges have banned this usage. It's only fair for other people to use it to write their reports. If the students have their own laptops, which many do nowadays, they can go on these sites, so I think, surf on these sites on your own machine in college, don't take up space if you know many other people need it for their assignments. It's only common sense. How to get out of that habit when you go back to work? Is it any different to people travelling for a year and go back to work afterwards? I don't think so, it's just a different way for someone to adapt back to routine, and how to work in an office environment. If the contract stipulates it, obide by it, seek HR on what is acceptable. If manager warns you, take that into account. Use your noggin!

The report at the end suggests that maybe we are addicted to the internet.

So if you are logging on when cooking the dinner, or in the middle of the night, then you have crossed the line from internet abuse to full-blown addiction.

Well, call me an addict then. I use the computer constantly if it's nearby, for both browsing and doing personal projects. I'm not addicted to looking up porn though, I think that's another problem altogether. If I go on holidays, I can forget about the internet. The only thing is checking my email, I am worried that I miss some important emails. As long as I get to go online for a minute to scan my emails, I'm happy.

What about people who use their phones to go online to check the map, or where to go for food? Are they addicts as they thought of going online to look for information, or Twitter, blog, send Flickr pictures, etc? What constitutes to addiction to the internet? It's a tool we use constantly and has interweaved into our modern society and life itself. It's useful source of information, but please stop playing scrabble online with your mates at work, it bugs the living be-jaysus out of me, especially when I can see your screen!

Posted by whykay at May 17, 2008 01:00 PM