What is orking, and how exactly does one do it to a cow?

As I understand, it is a little like cow tipping, but involves a lot of Astro-Glide.

I only tip cows if they bring me my water with a slice of lime ;)

Thanks for the input, everyone.

I guarantee you they don't have monitoring software. If they did, there would have been a lot more discipline going around. Plus, it would be more than me getting busted. I have one coworker who uses AIM at work, all the time, even if the place is busy. I have done that in the past but the guilt/worry gets to me so I've done it only a couple of times, and during those times I was completely alone at the desk, and helped one patron every 20 minutes.

Regarding manager attitudes. There are many levels of "boss" around here. The biggest boss (with the most strict attitude) is the one I mentioned above - uses the net as well. I'm also sure that if there was going to be a shakedown, it would filter down quickly that we should all stop, and we would.
I'll take the responsibility if I'm busted. But I know for a fact that if I was "busted", it would definitely be a minor infraction. I'd be called aside and told not to do it. Then I'd apologize without excuse, and stop. The library is a tight knit group. We all know each other, and even the highest of the high are approachable people who understand what goes on at the front desk.

What I am going to do is limit the amount of time I'm on. I've been sloppy lately. And if there's any pressure at all on me, I'll bow to it.

there certainly is at my job.

Don't be too sure of that. It might not be at your location. Are your computers stand-alone or do you log into a network?

They also may have sent the email as a friendly warning before they started the discipline. That happened at my work. They could have fired about 35 people for falsifying, but instead, they put out the warning letter, and gave people a chance to self-correct it. In the end only 5 people ended up getting canned for the reason stated in the letter.

The latest for us has been Cell Phone use while driving. If we are caught, we WILL get suspended and possibly fired. (It is in policy that they are not to be used while operating company vehicles) They had the big meeting and announcement about it this last Tuesday.

Keeping it to a minimum sounds like the best alternative. (If you do it on breaks, that is another good way, shows that you are consciencence of their time)

I would be careful. Since there is a job surplus going on things that didn't used to be a problem are now going to be taken more seriously. If you are on a network they can keep tabs on everyone. I doubt that you would have a problem, but I have seen things where people have been fired just so the company can set an example (it just happened at SBC-not just to me, but last week someone was fired for something that in the past would have been a slap on the wrist).

Before computers, it was personal use of phones. Generally these things are like speed limits, they aren't enforced that much, but will sometimes use them to make examples.

In my work experience this is one of those polices that is used to get rid of employees that people don't like. I've seen employees fired for similar infractions when the office's political environment changes.

Also, having had to do investigations on employees, it's amazing what kind of logs are kept - for a very long time - detailing the activity of specific computers. I'd head Ubergeeks warning on that one - if you plug into a network, a log is generated.

But, I want to add one more cautionary element to your decission making. BY stating the equipemnt is for work use only, they are also pretty much telling you that you should have no expectation of privacy (Now they probably already informed you of this when you hired on buried somewhere in fine print). So, be wearing of writting anything that might embarrass you.

You have an additional element of working for a government agency in that your computer use and communications could be subject to a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request. Granted this is usually what community gad flies annoy their mayors and city council with, but tick off a patron and they could do this just to annoy you. I know lots of people who manage city records and this is part of their daily work.

What that really means, is it covers the city/library if you do anything embarrassing - they can fire you right away pointing to their policy saving face with the community.

Personaly, I'm thinking a Treo might be a good investment for myself sometime in the future ;)

I work for a very conservative company IT-wise. We have to go nearly all the way up to the president to get approval to give someone internet access. We get the same sort of message CP quoted every single time we log in to our computers and have to click Okay, yes we agree, to get past the message and on with our work. While I have internet access, I am too paranoid to use it for anything but very specificaly work-related functions.

Many companies have this policy. Luckily mine does not but I know many people who have to live by this rule. Under no circumstances are they allowed to view the web. I know someone who was fired for it even.

I'd be more likely to follow company policy. Try to stay away. Even tho it blows!