The SPY 2

[Gymmeh]

So a little back ground Info:
I started my job working under an engineer and with another engineer in my department. After less then a month the head design engineer quit for more $$, and the other engineer has since been demoted to Sales Associate (for is lack of engineering ability), and I was thrown into the design engineer position, well before I should have. Since I don’t have sound engineer for help, I use internet engineering resources a lot.

The Spy:
Most of the engineering resources I use look like engineering resources to a person walking past accept eng-tips (ie. It doesn’t look like its used for work). So one day I did not alt+tab (switch screens) to ACAD, and one of the operations managers saw me reading on Eng-tips. Ever since they have walked really fast into my office(behind my desk) to ask pointless questions, or just look out my window and say something about the weather (they did while I was writing this).

The Problem:
The problem is the OM are really buddy buddy with the boss. This may be nothing but it’s a little wired to me. Now I spend 90% of my time looking at “work” related stuff. But there is the other 10% where I have said I want to change jobs, Pats pub, etc. I was thinking I may make an alias account, and figure a way to show the OM that I do uses this for work, to avoid any potential problems. But on the other side, it’s not their job, and I know my boss knows that I use what ever I can to get the job done right, because he knows understands my situation. Like anyone, I don’t like the feeling I am being spied on… and just want to do a good job.

What would you guys suggest? What do most bosses think of eng-tips, does your boss know/care?

 

[HgTX]

My boss knows I'm here. Every once in a while, when he's looking for something on the net, he comes across one of my posts. Granted, they're posts in the technical fora and not this forum or one of the other soft ones. But if he wanted to find me, he could.

He probably sees the Eng-Tips site on my monitor a lot. Only once did I hurriedly close the window, just last week, and I don't even know why I did it.

I'd stay out of Pat's Pub during work hours.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[swertel]

Engineers and our ethics.

Go ahead and view eng-tips during working hours because it is technical content, you are learning a lot, and some would even grant continuing ed credits for the time being here. But, stay out of the soft forums and the pub because that is not technical in nature and therefore you are doing personal internet surfing on company time and that is like stealing.

Wow! We are a picky group, aren't we.



--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[rmw]

In the type jobs that most of us as engineers have, we don't leave our minds at our work station. The technical issues continue to grind in the grey matter even after the office door knob hits us in the butt and some of the best solutions I have ever had have popped into my mind at all times of the day and night other than when my butt was occupying the chair at my work station.

I carry a Blackberry and a laptop and they are used constantly after "work hours" for company business.

I have no compunction at all about clicking into what ever I want to (excluding trash and porn and that sort of stuff) when I am at my work station but in reality, my job is demanding enough that I rarely do; I just don't have time. Most of my Eng-tips time is spent after hours and weekends as an escape because I am frankly too busy at work to lurk here very much. I do have to wonder sometimes when I open some threads in the soft fora especially in the evening how some of the members that contributed to it got anything done at their day job that day and if I were a manager of more people than I am, I'd have to give serious consideration to the time they might spend in Eng-tips. There are things here that could help them in their jobs, but there are also things that can waste a lot of their time.

For my part, I'm just waiting for one of the pointy heads to make an issue of something like this, because when they do, I am going to tell them that they can't have it both ways. I can leave the laptop and the BB in the safe in the office overnight if that is the way they want to do business. (We are not allowed to leave them at our workstations in case we are broken into as has happened.)

rmw

rmw

 

[HgTX]

I'm on here a lot, so I'm probably one of the people you're thinking about. I'm a "coast and burn" type. I work faster than a lot of other people, but then I need to clear my brain every so often. If I were the type to plod along slower but steadier, there wouldn't be any overt down-time to point to, but I don't think I'd be a more effective employee. They're getting a lot more out of me than they ever got from my last three predecessors.

Right now I'm sitting here after hours on a day that a week ago had been planned as a vacation day, trying to rev up to starting speed on my next task, which will take long enough that I will need a dinner break tonight. I'm not feeling guilty about my dedication (or lack thereof) to my employer.

I suppose if I were in a job that was more emergency-based I'd have fewer brain-clearing opportunities throughout the day. I think I'd like a job that was somewhat busier than mine but not in crisis mode all the time.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[ScottyUK]

I'm the guy who was posting at 0300 UK time, probably learning and maybe just helping someone in the technical fora during my own time. Whatever I learned that night will help me in my work, so I don't feel remotely guilty if I use this site during working hours. I am educating myself during my time, occasionally I might take a slight liberty during theirs. I don't get much opportunity to learn from other engineers at work these days unless they're consultants in for a few days and this place helps fill that need to some extent. I learn something pretty much every time I visit this site, and that makes me better at my job. Obviously it also has the benefit that I'm hopefully more employable elsewhere too!

If work really wants to make an issue out of web use then I'll stop using Eng-Tips, or stop using the web completely if necessary. I guarantee my productivity will go down. Whatever they might gain by imposing some petty restriction or ban, they will lose a thousand times over. So far it has not been an issue, so I guess that there is a mutual agreement at some level that allowing engineers to use the net does make them more productive and keeps us motivated.


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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[Gymmeh]

Thank you all for imput.

SO I cut back on the "PUB" and started openly using Eng-tips.

I talked to the OM, and the Operations Manager said she was "keeping track of things"(spying on me and the other guy) in the office... ...i get the impression the OM dont understand the usefulness, but the spying is not as annoying anymore.

Best Regards

 

[HgTX]

Heh. A few minutes ago my boss walked in to see the "How to Improve Myself" title on the top of the screen, and he just laughed.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[EngineerDave]

You know what I've done? I've created a blog in which I put facts and items about my field of study. In particular I'm using it in preparation for a board exam.

If you've read any of my posts complaining about a lazy co-worker you know how frustrated I've been doing more than him.

Now I don't feel guilty if there is a lull in work and I pull up my study blog, eng=tips or other forums.

Ok I do feel a bit guilty but when I recently was able to determine that I've been doing 75% of the work in a scenario that it should be evenly split in 3 I am starting to feel a bit more entitled to some quality screw off time.

 

[Gymmeh]

Well my mindset has changed alot since...

I got a job offer which I am taking.
this job offer is not a big pay raise but
A- its what I want to do
B- I have half the responsibility and still get paid the same.
C- If i mess something up big time, no one could die.
D- there are 3 other engineers!