No site for me
May 15, 2009
We have a fairly stringent web filter at work, one that does its best to ensure that while we’re at work we’re working by eliminating those “time sucks” (facebook, youtube, myspace and (new!) flickr). Though we enjoyed a period of free and easy access to facebook et al, the filters have been reinstated.
Ads are also blocked from most websites that we can see, as are flickr pics on blogs that I can still access. For some of the blogs I read, reading the entry without the pictures is not quite the same experience, and those huge gaps where the images should appear are very distressing (what am I not seeing? Is it a picture of a dog? A piece of luggage? A fossilized piece of dung?!!???). Sites that are religious or political in nature remain blocked, and I noticed that all blogs with a wordpress.com extension are now off limits to me (like Sizzle’s blog).
But worse than all of these is the fact that I can’t access this blog from work any longer! This means if the site is messed up or if I have late-breaking house-related news, or if I meet the man I’m going to marry during my workday, I’ll have to wait until I get home to share this news. This is terrible because what if I’ve moved out of the house or married by the time I’m able to come and blog it? Then what? In fact, can my life actually progress if I’m not able to blog each experience as it happens? I guess we’ll see.
Tomorrow I’m going to check the reason given for blocking access to this blog. I’m hoping it’ll be something innocuous like “Advertising”, and not something damning like “Site spends entirely too much time talking about not working while at work. The site author (who we believe desperately needs to remain employed in order to make her mortgage payments) would be best served by working, and should not try to find alternate means of regaining access to this site.”
Fingers crossed.
I know how you feel! For some reason, I CAN access your blog from work but I can't access any of that other stuff you mentioned (facebook, wordpress, etc). It really makes the work day much more tedious.
At least I can access a few good blogs, like yours. But if your employer is now cutting into your blogging time…don't they realize how that will affect people like me who depend on your blog?? Tell them I object!
OMG you're funny! And I agree with blocking everything like that in workplaces. Ours doesn't and it gets abused as I'm sure it does everywhere.
My boyfriend had the same problem at his work. Turns out though, that you can look at sites through Google Reader. Google is never going to be blocked so it worked really well.
As for writing while at work, I used to send myself e-mail using web-based mail. Then when I got home I could alter the publishing time and put it up. Or tweak it and leave the time alone.
Or you could just work. Whatever. ;)
sad day! I don't think I could concentrate on anything if I couldn't take 5 minute breaks to check my blog every few hours.
oh, the inhumanity of it all. happy blogger = happy worker = more productive worker. or something like that anyways!
I begged for them to let me at least access HOTMAIL at work – they blocked even THAT for a while there! Ridiculous – and I was going mad, because I couldn't "escape" :)
There's those proxy servers too – you go to a proxy site, and go through THAT to access stuff that's blocked… Haven't tried one, so can't give an example (useful post this is…), but I have heard they work…
I am lucky as NOTHING is blocked at my work! When we do overnight shifts I think everyone who works there would go mad without the internet, and I don't think it will ever get blocked.
So, I don't feel your pain but I can see how that would be highly irritating.