Those who know me know how frustrated I get with blocked internet access at work. I've even contemplated getting one of those internet anywhere USB things, but $60 a month or more just isn't worth it. I read this Slate article on Corporate IT Depts with great interest. I've been lucky, or unlucky, enough to have jobs where they do not take up the entire 8 hour day, so unhindered internet access is important to me. The below quote was particularly vindicating to me.
Indeed, there's no empirical evidence that unfettered access to the Internet turns people into slackers at work. The research shows just the opposite. Brent Corker, a professor of marketing at the University of Melbourne, recently tested how two sets of workers—one group that was blocked from using the Web and another that had free access—perform various tasks. Corker found that those who could use the Web were 9 percent more productive than those who couldn't. Why? Because we aren't robots; people with Web access took short breaks to look online while doing their work, and the distractions kept them sharper than the folks who had no choice but to keep on task.
The article goes on to discuss Results Only Work Environments and how what you get done is more important than how long you spend at work. With all our time saving technology, you would think that the 40 hour work week would be a thing of the past.
Instead of working less to make the same amount of stuff we have to work more to make more stuff then go out and buy more stuff than we need to justify all the time we waste at work making all kinds of stuff we don't need.
