At my last job, there was no internet filter.  When I started at my current job about four years ago, the company had Websense set up.  To some degree, I could understand; you probably don't want your employees looking at pornography or searching for warez while they're at work.  It really didn't affect my normal surfing habits, so I didn't have any problems with it.

Then, they started blocking game-related sites.  This eventually encompassed game-shopping sites (like Play-Asia) and this site.

Social networking sites have been blocked for some time.

A year or so ago, YouTube was blocked.

A few months ago, they stopped allowing access to external e-mail accounts.  That hurt.

Today, they started blocking message boards, forums, and internet auctions.  Roughly 90% of my remaining surfing has now been shut down.

My guess is that by shutting down access to these sites, the company is seeking to improve worker productivity.  What it does for me is to just make me resent my workplace.  I'm not going to get any more work done if I don't have access to these sites.  I get all of my work done as it is, and the way the performance evaluation process works at my job, it's essentially impossible to be graded at anything above "Meets Expectations", so there's really no incentive for me to do more.

Honestly, I am not engaged at work 8 hours a day.  I get bored easily, and I need to find other stuff to do.

I guess I'll have to start bringing books to work.

Does your employer object to having a personal laptop? 

Two suggestions:

iPhone
Asus Mini  (or similar) and Wireless Internet Card

Definitely worth it.

I don't think it's even possible for anyone to get "exceeds expectations" on their performance reviews.  The system is engineered by managers and executives to not give those out.  I once caught a glimpse of a salary review document that I shouldn't have seen.  The breakdown was that (and this was the year before all this shit with the economy hit the fan) that for annual pay raises for us rank and file employees was based on a 4 point system from your performance review: 1 - you got nothin, 2 - you got 1-3%, 3 - you got 4 - 5%, and a 4 out of 4 was 6% and more.  But the interesting thing was the statement below.  No more than 10% of all employees in your dept. are allowed to get a 4/4.  that's a load of crap.  If you do a good job you should be recognized for it.

IMO however, I wouldn't bring a book to work, esp if it's fiction.  Browsing the net during work you can pass that off as research or quickly flip to a work screen, etc. but people seeing you (and they do) reading a book during work at your desk, they'll interpret it as being non-productive and you'll feel the pinch sooner rather or later.

We use websense at our work.  It's a joke.  There are numerous methods for getting around it.

1) Bring a laptop and connect to an unsecure network if you work in a public office building with other buildings around you.  Make sure you unplug your ethernet cable from a docking station if you dock it because it will use LAN over WiFi.

2) Use a proxy.  There are an infinite number of free proxies you can find on the internet.  There are even more than you can pay a nominal sum for.  Eventually they will figure out that you're using one and block it, in which case you move on to another one.

3) Don't do it.  No matter what you do, if they really want to they'll find you.  Bring phone apps (Sudoku is my favorite), an mp3 player with a docking station or a newspaper to pass the time.

So true - or fire you - like they need any more evidence...The sad truth to trying to make any strides in corporate america, without pissing above you off, you invariably have a lot of down time...of course you better not be screwing around either, or worse, have nosy co-workers.  That could kill ya too.

also...A spare hard drive in certain circumstances, one that you can swap out, say on a laptop, is a beautiful thing.

Uhh, since I don't get to sit at a computer for my job, I can't have much symphathy for either getting or not getting to look stuff up online while on the clock... 

I'd consider myself lucky if I had a desk job with a computer at all, and there's plenty of worse reasons to hate your job/employer more than them being super-restrictive with their online policies.

As someone who routinely sees co-workers watching YouTube vids, buying DVDs or flights online or typing long mails on Gmail when they should actually be working and doing what they're paid to do, I must say I don't have a huge amount of sympathy either.

I'm sure many people only spend a bit of time online and don't abuse it but some do. I'm not sure what the solution is there - daily web minutes? I don't know.

At my current job, I go home when I'm finished. Sometimes I work 4 hours. Sometimes I work 12 hours. I've only worked physical labor jobs, which is a huge advantage. I get all sorts of time to think about the stuff I've read. My favorite job was working at Papa John's pizza, which involved walking for 4-6 hours per day, delivering fliers door to door. It was also at that job where I observed why some people become victimized so easily. One day (in 1992) I was approaching a house and 4 women in a van had just pulled into the driveway. As I got to the front porch, the last woman was holding the door for me, without looking back. I said something to get her attention, and she turned around and exclaimed, "I thought you were with us!"

I don't have any problems with Websense at my job because only the salespeople use the computers. I'm not a salesperson, so I don't have an ID or password. In fact, I've never even heard of Websense until reading this post. In my opinion, if you have time to do things with the computer that are not work related, then you should go home. I mean, if your work is finished, then why stay at work? I understand this madness about "shifts" and "40 hour work-weeks", but they are not efficient. It is more efficient to go home when you are done. It costs the company less money and reduces the stress in the lives of the workers.

I know in my case, there are times during the day when I'm just playing the "waiting game" while I wait for experiments to finish running, etc. I work for a large company and while we don't use websense, we do have a program that does block sites. Fortunately, there are still a few gaming related sites that aren't blocked, but anything with streaming media (well, most places) or social networking is blocked. Hell, you can't even watch CNN Videos. Forums haven't been an issue yet either. Sometimes I wish Siemens wasn't so strict...

working for someone else blows... I'd quit my part-time fedex courier job if it wasn't for the great affiliate discounts and health insurance (even as part-time you get full-timer benefits)

Our company's HR gives ratings on a scale of 1 to 5. 3 is "achieved goals/expectations." 4 is "some goals achieved, some exceeded." 5 is "ALL goals exceeded."

My little brother got a 5. He's also like, the savior of the company. He is awesome.

I got a 2 out of 5. Apparently all new hires are routinely given 2 so they "have somewhere to go." Artificial lowering of early scores so we show continual improvement, haha!

I agree with this statement, but that's not the way my workplace/industry works.  I need to put in a certain number of hours at the workplace, and pretty much all of those hours have to be spent in front of a computer.  There is some movement at my company to make working from home an option, which I would warmly embrace.  Not only would it cut down on my inefficient "just-being-there" time at work, but it would also free up an hour and a half per day that I spend commuting.

It's certainly better than being a slave. For a long time, many people had to work for the right to work. Nowadays, we're exempt from slavery and still complain. This makes sense, because happiness always resets. This would be difficult to test, but if the minimum wage in the U.S. suddenly rose to $1,000,000 per year, the average worker would still be unhappy. The typical way to live would change and we'd get used to it and long for something better. I don't think there is an optimum way to live. There are certainly ways to have optimum moments, but they can never be permanent.