blogging and working
My hits increase during work hours, which tends to suggest that most of the people who read and comment on this blog are doing so at work (except of course for those smelly students and beneficiaries, or at least the ones who can afford decent internet access or sponge it off others).
Further most bloggers seem to post during work hours too - and most are not the boss like DPF. Comments to the high traffic blogs (the aforementioned Kiwiblog and NRT, Just Left) are largely made 9 - 5 Mon - Fri too.
To minimise my sponging (and limit my liability) I've started writing posts at home, then just doing a bit of editing and putting them up from the work puter in breaks or after I've actually finished for the day.
So are we stealing from our employers by blogging at work? Or is it just part of the accepted norm of internet use these days - up there with doing your banking online and booking movie tickets?
Any what about all that blog browsing - is it wasting our employers' time?
9 comments:
In a reasonable firm it's a matter of give & take. I'm officially entitled to an hours lunch, but I usually spend 10 minutes getting a sandwich to eat at my desk. I take client calls when I'm not at work, sometimes I think about work issues outside working hours. Oh, and I don't smoke, so I don't spend half the day standing on the pavement downstairs.
So I think I'm entitled to recharge my brain blogging/reading the paper/chatting..
Same goes for the person I supervise - and when I was an owner/manager, for my employees.
One reason I don't blog with my full name - though I guess I could be tracked down through an IP?
I work in an enviroment where face time is more important than whether you're doing any work. For instance for the next two days I have to come to work and sit on my butt because my 1st and 2nd years are at camp.
Other teachers come and do shopping on the net etc. and openly sleep on their desks and no one thinks any less of it!
It's a mixed bag. I don't surf the web at work because, well, I'm working. I don't have the time.
That having been said, the majority of my cubicle jockey friends hit keys just to make it look like they're working...
The downside of course are true pieces of human tragedy like the thing that happened to a close personal... acquantance of mine.
Read abiout it it here:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/musicevangelist/15663.html
and here:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/musicevangelist/16002.html
You`ll know if you read my blog that I dont even have internet access at work, so I cant blog or surf for porn.
And I wouldnlt have time even if I did....
However you will notice that the bloggers who get the most hits and the most comments are doing it at work.....
Us poor buggers have to do it late at night once the kids are in bed and the housework is done
hmmm i find it interesting that there are no comments from any of the uber-bloggers... too busy blogging, i mean working?
i think i could do with a bit of the ol' sleeping on my desk jag today, urgh. instead i have to sit in on training that someone else is running for almost the entire day. wish i could learn to sleep with my eyes open.
I actually use blogging and commenting on blogs as kind of a writing warm up. It's not exactly like freewriting but I don't have to think too hard and it helps me to transition from dealing with people or whatever to the solitary writing/creating space. So I don't feel bad doing it at work. In any case I quite often do it during what would be a lunch break (like now) or tea break anyway. And I quite often work from home and at night thus using my personal internet connection for work purposes without being reimbursed for it. So I think it probably all evens out in the end.
But...perhaps I'm protesting too much and now really should get back to work!!
thanks everyone for making me feel much less guilty.
i feel that i put my hours in (we are only supposed to work 37.5 but it's at least 40 most weeks) and get my work done, but i have residual feelings of guilt (can you tell i went to a catholic school?) and fear from my previous job where our phone messages, emails, internet access and length of phone calls were all monitored. and it wasn't a call centre.
You forgot the people who comment from other time zones!
I don't blog at work because I can't. I'm sure I would if I could, but I spend most of my time at work in the classroom. When I have time between classes, I'm catching up on paperwork. Most of my lunchtime goes that way, too.
Sometimes I envy the people who can blog from work, but then I remember working in an office and while I didn't hate it exactly, I really do enjoy what I'm doing. But maybe one day I'll turn into a normal person again...
great to hear from someone who so obviously loves their job badaunt! good for you! :-)
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