Significant setback at the office
I read an article in The Japan Times this weekend about how companies are increasingly monitoring their employees’ use of the Internet on company time. Although this practice is understandable, I don’t think companies realize that restricting access to Web-based mail and online discussion groups may actually be counter-productive.
For example, I often find it very helpful to be able to ask questions about JavaScript, Perl, PHP, XML, or even the English language (which I seem to forget more and more of the longer I stay in Japan) at places like Yahoo Groups or evolt.org and so on. The information I get from these sources helps me work more effectively, which I think companies should understand and respect.
Unfortunately, however, starting this month, the company where I work has decided to cut off access to Web-based mail, mailing lists, chat groups, forums, and other sources of information. Just this morning, I noticed that I am no longer able to log in to my Web mail accounts or manage any of my Yahoo Groups. Although I acknowledge that it is still possible to get work done without these resources, it is a considerable inconvenience to be deprived of them. (And, sure, I freely admit that I use Web-based mail for personal correspondence while I am at work--but not in favor of getting work done.)
Until I can figure out a way to work around this prohibition, I’m afraid I will be a bit harder to reach than usual. I will only have unfettered Internet access from home, where I rarely have time to respond to the volume of mail I receive each day.
Sigh. The really ironic thing about this is that the company wants to treat me like an employee (which would give it the right to control how I work), but pay me as a contractor (which would not). Maybe it’s time to call more attention to my contractor status by insisting on telecommuting rather than showing up at the office each day. Or maybe it’s time to look for a new job--although I don’t have any reason to believe that any other company’s policies would be any more enlightened.
At any rate, I’m not pleased with this situation. Do you think the company would accept a request to increase my budget for reference materials to offset the loss of unrestricted access to most of my regular sources?
