Should I stop posting from work?

[Ghoulish Delight]

I know if that my company were keeping tabs on use, they would have long ago asked "What the hell is xenarchy.com??" At one point, looking at the site's statistics, the top 3 domains that people were accessing the LoT from were Adelphia (that'd be everyone with Adelphia cable modems), Cox (again, everyone with a Cox cable modem), and my company (that would be...me).

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

I know if that my company were keeping tabs on use, they would have long ago asked "What the hell is xenarchy.com??"

Not necessariy, we're getting to the point that we generate more information than a human can possible deal with - hence the emergence of these hueristic monitoring tools. I know in my company, nobody is reviewing the logs as they are created, but should a problem be flagged ALL the data is pulled and ready to be reviewed.

I've been involved in investigations of employees and was amazed if not a bit frightened of all the information they had gathered about the employees online activities, but all of that would have gone unnoticed if other things didn't lead to the investigation in the first place.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by €uroMeinke

Not necessariy, we're getting to the point that we generate more information than a human can possible deal with - hence the emergence of these hueristic monitoring tools. I know in my company, nobody is reviewing the logs as they are created, but should a problem be flagged ALL the data is pulled and ready to be reviewed.

That's essentially what I meant. I do kinda assume they're logging stuff, but I know I haven't been flagged yet.

Of course, I do most of my surfing from a system that's not tied to me by name in any way. Of course, it's easy for them to locate it, and that would tie it to me, but in terms of automatic logging under my "file", they can't.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Drince88

Wow! You don't need to get on to the internet to help patrons? I assume the intrAnet will still be up, though, so you can do stuff like interlibrary loans and such? Ok, I just think you'd have to be able to occassionally SHOW a patron how to do the online library stuff.

Be interesting to see if they notice it hampering your ability to do your job, and install a password to the internet sort of system...

These are VERY good points. We will continue to be networked simply for our catalog to work. They said something like "one computer will continue to have internet access for stock ordering purposes", so I guess that'd be the boss' desk computer.

During tax time the reference librarians are continually using their computers to get onto the IRS' website and download particular forms for patrons. I wouldn't be surprised if they enabled them to do this again when that time comes around.

I have helped lots of patrons with everyday direction questions, because I'm really fast with mapquest/yahoo yellow pages. We do have paper street maps at the desk as well but obviously that's not going to help me find the nearest McDonalds. I don't get requests like that often but they do happen, in the guise of "do you know a place around here that..." Since I don't live up there I've taken to using the net to help them out, especially if I have nothing else to do.

So much for that. And I'm not going to stick my neck out and be a proponent for bringing the 'net back.

BTW, found out what started the scrutiny - a coworker got an email featuring beefcake and was spied on by the Branch Head Librarian, who's nice but as pure as the driven snow. Sigh.

[MickeyLumbo]

beefcake: the Devil's workshop for librarian's

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Update, in case anyone cares.

The warnings from our myriad bosses continue. We've received 3 more reminders since I last posted here about it, one actually mentioning not to play solitaire on the computer. The last one was from the Biggest Boss Lady repeating that they are going to take away access from us, which they haven't done yet.

I've weaned myself off of it and now read books at the desk. IMHO this looks worse to the patrons than surfing (since it looks like we're working) and it makes it harder for me to notice someone waiting (when I'm using the computer my head is up, when I read my head is down). But hey, it beats staring off into space. We've also been cautioned to keep our talk down to a minimum and to not talk about stuff in front of the patrons. It sounds obvious, but you try sitting still for 10 whole minutes at a time unable to do anything. If they come after us for reading, THEN I'm going to say something.

It's been tough. Surfing is an automatic thing for me.

I can still post from my morning job, like now. But as of next week things are going to be rather busy for me here, so I probably won't be able to do it often.

[MickeyLumbo]

damn, not only do i never get to see you anymore...now, i won't even get your posts?

what's with these patrons? can't they check out the material "self-serve" style like at Home Depot and leave the staff to more imortant work like talking to me?

missing you more and more each day

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Sorry to hear about this, J. And I can commiserate. Two months ago, we had to sign that we would not only not use the internet, but that we would not do anything that was not related to work at our desk. We will be immediately let go if they catch us.

That means that if I want to write "buy tofu" on a sticky note, I have to go down eight flights of stairs and walk the length of the building all the way to the cafeteria to do it. I would like to thank those responsible for making an already painful workday more painful!

[Prudence]

Great googly moogly! Are there any exceptions? If you have a family member in life-threatening surgery are you allowed to receive updates? Can schools call parents to tell them that little Timmy broke both arms and one leg in PE? Can landlords call to tell you that by the way, your hot water heater failed and your apartment is has a foot of standing water and do they have permission to enter and fix it? So if you don't have a cell phone, so much for making appointments at places that are only open 8-5? Ish!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by MickeyLumbo

what's with these patrons? can't they check out the material "self-serve" style like at Home Depot and leave the staff to more imortant work like talking to me?

Now that you mention it, our renovated library will feature self-check stations, and we are going to encourage everyone to use them.

Probably means less of us on the payroll though. Can't stop progress