Monday, July 30, 2007

Bad News, Good News

By the way, in the New York Daily News Carolyn Kepcher - she of former "Apprentice" fame - writes that surfing the Web at work can lead to trouble. (Of course, this is an industry-related blog, so it's okay.)

More than 25 percent of U.S. companies have fired someone in the last 12 months for violating their e-mail policies, she says, and nearly a third have a full-time staff member spending all of their time reading employee e-mail. Twenty percent have disciplined an employee for violating policies regarding social networking sites, like YouTube.

Fortunately, today's Wall Street Journal has a special section on technology, which includes a helpful item on things your IT department won't tell you. Among other things, it offers hints on getting to Web sites your company blocks and - for the road warriors among you - thoughts on how to clear your cache for any lurking spy software your firm may favor.

I'm not advocating reading things you shouldn't be reading during work, I hasten to add. Sooner or later, that's going to catch up with you, Big Brother or no. You're just not going to work as efficiently if you're distracted, and that's going to impact your career prospects directly. If you need a break, there are better ways to take one than getting lost on MySpace.

But don't you just love it when the Daily News suggests you not do something and The Wall Street Journal tells you how?

Net surfing at work leads to wipeouts [NY Daily News]
Ten Things Your IT Department Won't Tell You [WSJ]

1 comment:

Mark Feffer said...

This link on Simply Fired may offer some more details on why the New York Post numbers are a bit slanted. It seems like the survey may have been conducted by a firm that has a bias. Click here.