My cube is setup such that if people want to they can see my computer screen. Which means whenever the unit’s co-manager walks back from the bathroom to her office, she can technically spy on me to see if I’m working. Fortunately for me she walks so heavily that I can hear her coming and going and I switch to something work-related. Not that I’m always goofing off. Lately, though, I’m in a spot with both of my courses where I’m not actively working on them. They are in other hands and so I’ve been doing homework or reading websites. And, besides, she’s not my supervisor. I still hate to look like a goof-off, even though I am quite good at it.
The other day at lunch, a co-worker and I were talking about this manager and her crazy rules about short lunches (or better yet no lunches), time spent in group discussion, spending every available minute working, etc. When I told this co-worker that I always feel guilty when this manager walks by, my co-worker said she used to feel that way but then she got over it and is unconcerned about taking out the Washington Post, People or whatever and getting in a good read.
I figure if I’m out of line or not producing then either a co-worker will get on my case or my supervisor will. Since all of my team members have a bad attitude about authority and my supervisor spends plenty of time on the internet, I think I need to get over the guilt. My work gets done well within established timeframes so really I don’t know why I’m so sensitive.
As long as you are’t looking at porn or other risque websites, I don’t see the harm in it. I do it too….I’m always checking my yahoo email, my southern living workstation, etc. at work.