Read this and thought of you;
___________________________
Posted on Sun, Jan. 12, 2003
Web sites offer advice for surfing Internet when you should be working. All in fun, of course By Betty Lin-Fisher
Beacon Journal business writer
OK, fess up: Do you use your office Internet access for things other than work?
You wouldn't be alone.
Web sites dedicated to so-called online slackers, or cyber slackers, come complete with panic buttons that will show a legitimate Web site or chart on your computer screen should the boss come walking by.
Don Pavlish, a Cuyahoga Heights free-lance Internet consultant, has hosted such a site, called
http://www.donsbosspage.com, since 1996. Pavlish estimates the site has had 3.5 million visitors in its six or so years. It gets about 1,000 hits a day.
The jovial 28-year-old doesn't take himself or his site seriously, but a lot of people do.
``People were taking it far more seriously than me. Bosses were angry, saying I was wasting their employees' time,'' said Pavlish.
So you may want to think twice before visiting Pavlish's site on company time. Some see cyber slacking as a widespread problem and the corporate world is not taking the issue lightly. Many companies have strict policies about Internet or e-mail use and have fired employees for misuse.
Websense, a maker of employee Internet management software that can limit where an employee is surfing or for how long, estimates that $85 billion in productivity is lost annually to cyber slackers. The company said in a recent survey that employees admitted to spending 1.5 hours per week visiting nonwork-related Web sites while employers say that number is more like 8.3 hours per week -- more than an entire workday. A December study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project showed 47 percent of employees say they go online several times a day and 33 percent shop for gifts on the Internet at work.
Pavlish, however, thinks those numbers are even higher.
Don's Boss Page started out as a joke while Pavlish was a New York University student in film and television. To this day, he maintains the site as a hobby and makes no money off it.
Pavlish, a Bainbridge Township native, has always loved computers.
``My passion is being creative,'' he said.
Pavlish, a self-described geek, created a business card looks like a typical Ohio driver's license, with the words altered to ``Geek License.'' Under his height, he lists 3 feet 9 inches (sitting) and his eyes are ``bloodshot.''
Pavlish said the business card helps break the ice when he goes into corporate boardrooms for potential projects.
Pavlish's whimsical site at first looks like a typical spreadsheet and chart that an employee might be working on. But that's the point. There's a ``protector'' function on the site that the user can hit if the boss comes walking by while the employee is surfing, and up pops the spreadsheet.
The site also has tips on how to slack off and silly sound effects for workers of ``cube farms,'' as Pavlish calls them. If you want to go to sleep in your cubicle or office, click on the ``plain 'ol typing,'' a sound file of Pavlish actually typing. Or there's ``phones from hell,'' a collection of phones ringing off the hook. For the more daring, there are effects that include whipping sounds. There's also silly e-mail postcards you can send to friends.
Another online slacker site is
http://www.ishouldbeworking.com, where one of the ``creepy'' links is to every last meal requested by inmates on death row in Texas. The creator of ishouldbeworking.com was unavailable for an interview. He was probably working.
Pavlish said he thinks people have this impression of him as a Molotov-cocktail throwing, bring-down-business guy.
``I'm not. I own my own business. I've managed employees,'' said Pavlish, who works out of a home office, but has also had corporate jobs and often works in ``cube farms'' for his free-lance projects. ``But I also see the need for people to relax and zone out a bit.''
Pavlish argues that there's nothing harmful about employees occasionally checking out a Web site for personal use -- as long as they still get their work done and don't cross the line and go to pornographic sites or do day-trading.
``Why shouldn't they be able to go on and check their personal e-mail? In today's world, there are so many demands on people. The Web is efficient,'' he said.
Pavlish likens an occasional online surfing session to a coffee break or a smoking break.
Not all bosses disagree.
Frank Scanlan, spokesman for the Society for Human Resource Management, said it's unrealistic for bosses to think their employees aren't going to do a little personal Internet surfing.
``You spend so much time at work. (Bosses) just have to accept the fact that those things are going to happen and to some degree it's not going to hurt productivity,'' said Scanlan, who likens occasional surfing to an employee making a personal call to a spouse.
Even bosses are surfing, he said.
Scanlan said when balanced, the occasional surfing may actually help employees be more productive.
``They're more refreshed and have a better perspective on things. They're ready to go again. People aren't machines,'' he said.
Websense, the software company, also believes some online surfing can be productive.
``Thirty minutes a day conducting online banking or shopping can take less time than an employee going out and going to the bank or the mall,'' said spokeswoman Erin Patrick.
Pavlish has another unlikely ally: the president of a company that sells monitoring software that can watch every keystroke an employee makes on a computer throughout the day.
Richard Eaton, president of winwhatwhere.com, said he loves Don's site.
``I use his spreadsheet on my computer. I don't know who's going to catch me, but I think it's hilarious. I think it points out that they need to have a sense of humor,'' he said.
Eaton said he encourages his clients to divulge to employees that their computer use is being monitored and thinks the software is more appropriate for auditing a problem instead of monitoring everyone's activities.
Occasional surfing should be encouraged, Eaton said.
``The problem happens when people cross the line and that company is then liable for their activities,'' he said.
Companies are watching employees' computer use.
According to a 2000 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, 26 percent of companies said Internet use is never monitored while 62 percent said sometimes and 12 percent said always. For e-mail use, 35 percent said it was never monitored, 58 percent said sometimes and 7 percent said always.
More companies are also imposing formal written policies about computer use. Seventy percent have e-mail policies and 72 percent have Internet-use policies.
Pavlish said he gets positive feedback about the site from both employees and bosses. But usually the employee e-mail is anonymous.
``It's a Web site you might not want to admit to,'' he said.
The spreadsheet on the site is real and will even come up as a Macintosh or Windows-based spreadsheet, so if your boss is computer-savvy it won't be an obvious fake.
But Pavlish warns that people shouldn't turn in the data for a real project. He's also toying with the idea of putting together a report for students to use as their ``panic button.''
``But if I do it, I should do it all wrong so they'll get in trouble'' if they try to turn it in as theirs, Pavlish said.
Pavlish said if his site gets a laugh from a worker, he's done his job.
``I know in many companies, it's morose. If people get a laugh out of it, fine. It makes me happy,'' he said.
Adding some humor to the workplace is important, said Joe Keefe, ``executive guy in charge'' at Humor Resources, a suburban Chicago-based company that helps bring humor into the work place with improvisational skits and workshops.
``The workplace has become our neighborhood. The demands on individuals in the workplace today are higher than they've ever been. The need to provide catharsis is stronger, and humor is one of those things we depend upon most,'' said Keefe, who hadn't checked out Pavlish's site, but said he intended to look at it.
Pavlish, who said he's sometimes a slacker, said he doesn't necessarily see himself in Corporate America someday.
``I don't know if I'd be allowed back in. There's probably a bounty on me for Don's Boss Page,'' he said, with a laugh.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
