Should web access at work be controlled?  

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I work at home, so it does not affect me. I think that time on the internet at work should definitely be limited. If the boss gives you a little leeway, you should not go overboard.
One good way to avoid this is setting up a time limit where the internet will shut off at a certain time. When I lived with my sister and her kids, her oldest daughter was just getting into the internet.
I let her set up her own account, but it would automatically shut off after an hour. This is because she would go to teenage websites and claim to be 16, when she was fourteen. I set up parental controls, but it did not keep her off of these sites.
This is one thing that employers can do so their employees will know when it is time to get back to work.

Unfortunately it is a human trait that once they get away with something they just don't seem to know when to stop, I think any company has the right to expect their staff to do what they are getting paid for, and even looking at the side of things that when staff members in some jobs play around others have to pick up their slack, I have been a victim of that my self.

In my last job there was some restrictions to how much you used the internet while working. This rule was implemented because some of the earlier coworkers spent a lot of time playing world of warcraft and such while working.

Well my personal time spent on the internet while working is 0.
I just dont see the point. Im there to work, not to do my own things.
I dont use the company phone for personal calls, I dont allow my friends and family to call me there unless its urgent, and I dont even run Messenger while at work.

I dont think its all that unreasonable that you spend a few minutes everyday on using the internet for personal things. Sometimes you just need a 5 minute break to clear your mind. But excessive use should be restricted.

I dont work at the moment but when I worked I was not allowed to use the internet at all If I needed to use it I had to tell my boss and they would give me a temporary accses to it. I know of people who have the internet on all the time and the first chance they have they do stuff on it so the productivity goes down.

I guess I am fortunate because I work for myself and much of that work is web-related. I often have consultations with my clients via e-mail and instant messenger etc. In between clients I enjoy such sites as this one and Yuwie and earn a little money. Working for myself, I have always been oriented to making my hobbies profitable where I can.

I feel if I was in work for an employer I would have signed a contract of employment and that included working in work-time, having a break and in break-time. I would not break my word and surf in working-time as I feel that I would be selling out my integrity and my integrity is important to me. As a Zen practitioner I aim to be honest as the only person who ever really gets cheated is oneself. :-)

When I was at work out internet access was unlimited. One of my former colleagues would spend hours chatting online rather than getting on with her work and as a result, we all had our internet access removed. I rarely used the internet while I was at work, I was usually far too busy to waste time surfing the net but the firm had to remove access for all because of the small minority who abused the privilege.

i think the use of both internet and cellphone at work should be limited, if not banned, because this interferes with people's working capacities. however, there are jobs that require these 2 medium, hence this should also be limited to official use. i think that using these two gadgets during official time is stealing from the company's assets. yeah, because people and their work time and capacities are company property while they are paid to do so.

As I sit here posting at work I do believe that access should be controlled :) I think I use the net responsibly at work but others do not. I only post on lunch time or breaks. The computer and the Internet access belong to the company so it's up to them how they control it.

I think it's pretty dumb for people to expect to be able to surf the web at work. AT one job I had, we didn't have internet access on our work computers, but they provided a bank of computers for personal use,so we could go in and use them during breaks or lunch.

That's why they call it "work" and not "fun" lol.