Lost Productivity

I tried to access a website today while at work. When I typed in the name of the site I was rewarded with a red screen and the words Prohibited, contravenes and blocked.

When I couldn’t access the site from my work computer (I just wanted to confirm something that would have taken no more than a couple of minutes) I referred to Safari on my iPhone. Reception of 3G isn’t what it could be when I’m out west working in the demountable building, what would have taken two or three minutes tops on the desktop connected to the network, took getting on for twenty minutes as I waited for pages to load. Then the looking the map up on whereis.com for directions.

I understand this blocking is preserve productivity of employees, so they don’t spend all day surfing the web, but sometimes you just need to check something when you thinking about it, rather than write a note to remind you to look later. I don’t understand how such a tight policy preserve that productivity. After all, I could spend the entire day reading the SMH or chatting with friends on LinkedIn, isn’t that worse than a quick check of the local doggie parks?

Did I mention all webmail is also blocked? Yet when I try to save an external contact (i.e. my agent) to my outlook contacts, it gets deleted each week. So I have to type in three addresses each week to send off my time sheet. Oh...and I can’t extract files onto a USB stick.

I know that companies need to have policies and procedures for the things that they do and do not allow, but it would seem that the company I am currently working for are a tad more paranoid about internet use than they should be. Afterall, we’re not making systems for the countries defence or planning security for the upcoming Obama visit. We are a private company mostly owned by the NSW Government (whom incidentally allow access to Facebook, I haven’t even tried to access that, I think my computer would implode) that has an average tenure of 23.8 years. This is not your regular, everyday internet surfer dude.

I know one senior employee that brings an iPad to work with outside internet access so he can effectually do his job. It’s the only way he can access some sites for research purposes.

I would say this, while it not my place to review your internet policies, I would say, it’s time for a change.