Lifestyle bust yields crumbs

For the first time at work yesterday I had the British equivalent of a urine test (don't tend to have those here). I had a visit from an 'auditor', there to check out my work PC for porn, unlicensed games, MP3's and evil screensavers.

I stood there like an Iraqi at a baby food plant while he skimmed my hard drive for mpg's, sound files, and then, gulp, .jpg's.

He scanned the vast number of picture files on my disk, and started to open them up, one by one. I could see the way his mind worked -
the first one he opened was 'BellyOrange.jpg'. Up came a photo of a Pang Tiki mug. "Errr, I collect them," I spluttered.
Next up was 'Tiki-Jo'. That turned out to be a matchbook cover. 'ButlinsBeachcomber' the Beachcomber plate. Onto ones with names like '34grt.jpg' - more Tiki's. This kept on going for a few minutes, until I said," I told you I like 'em". He just gave me a look, which summed up his thought's - "I've been digging up some weird shit from people's hard-drives over the past few years, but you are one sick individual."

(I was busted for using the internet too much, though. Cest la vie)

Trader Woody

TW,
They do this periodically on a "spot check" basis at my work too. And like you, I was somewhat mildly reprimanded for too much Internet use. I told them, "but I use it for research .....(tiki research) :)" and they let that pass!

Ha! Busted too, eh Pop?

The checking out of sites such as Tiki Central, Tiki Farm, Munktiki et al must throw up a dilemma for the PC Nazi Patrol. They hate it because it's (in their eyes) horribly 'wrong', yet at the same time they can't bust you for anything.

I must admit, though, to being a little worried about possibly downloading one or more of those classic 'Hot babe next to Tiki carving' pics posted a while back....

Trader Woody

TW,
Like you, my PC was randomly selected and audited for porn, mp3's, etc. I'm sure it wasn't random because after the "search" I was talked-to about my Internet usage because my bandwidth consumption was "higher than average." Plain and simple, they didn't find any porn on my PC and I'm not stupid enough to download mp3's at work all day. As such, they cleared me from any wrong-doing. Whew....the search was still a nail biter!

[ Edited by: DaneTiki 2009-08-30 19:27 ]

My company blocks all types of sound files. WAV, MP3, whatever. And they monitor online time. I get in trouble monthly. They say they consider a click within 3 minutes as online. I just seem to always be online. I can't help it. Now I do things like go to TC and right click everything I want to read and open in a new window. That way I do all my clicking at once. Then I read at leisure. By the time I read it all, it's been 3 minutes. I even watch the clock for that 3 minutes so I can click again. It sucks. And I generally just come here, check my online mail and the stats for the pages. Stinks. I'm always getting a talking to...

I here ya, things are getting very uptight at work. I try to limit my on-line time for recreational purposes to my lunch hour (which my company allows as long as I'm not trading child prostitutes on E-Bay or something). I have to deal with vendors, sub-contractors, ect. so I can write off any additional time to that, but I sometimes get bored and stray to the "TC Zone". At the end of every week I clean my files...delete E-mail (or transfere it my personal file), empty my recycle bin & check my "C" drive cookies and blow everything away not work related. I don't indulge in porn at work or at home but you never know what these people who monitor your on-line activities are going to think! A systems engineer in my company was called on the carpet for E-Mails he had sent & received for a navy ship we were working on called the USS ESSEX...the SEX in the ship's name sent up a red flag.

Swanky (and others): It sounds like getting messages delivered to email may help you. Most email programs allow you you to filter based on a keyword so you can have all your Tiki Central messages delivered into one folder.

This could very well keep those clicks down to a minimum and you'd only be on the web for replying and viewing pictures.

Email message delivery can be set up here:

https://tikicentral.com/mail_register.php

~Hanford

Just imagine all those assholes wanting
8 hours work for 8 hours pay
Just who do they think they are
I too work so hard in 6 hours that I DESERVE
To fuck off for rest of the time
Those boss types make all the money anyway
so why shouldn't I steal and lie
They owe me
The man is always keepin me down
I better get back to work, I'm on my 15th 10 min. cig brake and I have to go to the bathroom
When's lunch?
Did I take my brake yet?
I'm late because "I got soap in my eye in the shower and I could not see to drive"

I need my tums and my nitro pills
and a towel to wipe the tears away.
It's not easy to be a dick?

If I am being paid to do something and instead screw around on the internet, I am stealing from my employer :( But I wanna see what's on Tiki Central!! It drives me nuts.

P.S. Lock and load, Bax!

On 2003-01-17 12:46, Trader Woody wrote:
For the first time at work yesterday I had the British equivalent of a urine test (don't tend to have those here). I had a visit from an 'auditor'...

rather than making yourself a nervous wreck by surfing the net @ work, perhaps you should start taking hard drugs while on the clock!

On 2003-01-20 07:35, thebaxdog wrote:
The man is always keepin me down
I better get back to work, I'm on my 15th 10 min. cig brake and I have to go to the bathroom
When's lunch?
Did I take my brake yet?
I'm late because "I got soap in my eye in the shower and I could not see to drive"

I need my tums and my nitro pills
and a towel to wipe the tears away.
It's not easy to be a dick?

A good boss can eliminate such problems in two very easy steps:

1. Pay people what they are worth, not as little as you think you can get away with.

2. Treat people with respect. Gotta give to get.

I've had great employees and I never once questioned how they spent their time, and I've had employees who always miss deadlines and never seem to get anything done no matter what you do, but generally speaking a good working environment fosters good work.

Likewise, bad bosses create bad work environments and usually end up with the litany of complaints you write of, Baxdog.

The fact is, a boss/manager is responsible for how his/her employees behave, and if you have lousy employees then ya need to look at how you are running things instead of blaming employees.

If an employee is performing well, I give them the freedom to determine how they work. Scary concept for many companies, but in my experience, it works.

-Mike (surfing TC in the middle of the work day)!

as a former employee of the esteemed Muggler, i can vouch for his methods and honestly say that that was the only job i've ever had where i a) didn't want to shoot myself all day and b) actually cared about the work.

unfortunately, now i'm back to those other types of jobs. the last place i was working for had a zero internet usage policy. i had to tweak my network settings to even be able to access the web. bastards.

It must be nice to have the luxury to have employees long enough to trust them. And just who does set the bar on what is fair pay or paying them what their worth.
It seems to me in the transient world of retail and (my world) construction, you rarely have anyone around long enough to trust. And now in this economy if I pay the ones I like more, I cannot make a dime on them because the home owners won't pay that much. I mean a Plumber and an Electrician can charge $80.00 an hour, but if I take a finish carpenter that is a total artist, that takes a bunch of lines on paper and makes a master piece out of it. Now I try to charge $46.00 an hour for him, I am "raping" the owners. So for a guy that put major time in the trenchs, I am always on the side of the trenches. But in the world I work in, and seeing tons of friends in retail, it is hard to have the surreal world you talk of. The market just won't bare that cost. I am glad you can create the world you talk about, and maybe someday when I grow up I to can be the boss I always wanted. And just like most people that THINK they are funny, I might have stretched things a little. But until that glorious day that I can walk on water,
GET BACK TO WORK
Because I have fifty other losers to take your job at half the cost.