Internet usage disciplinary thing.

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Internet usage disciplinary thing.

36 posts & 22 voices | Started 3 years ago by gingerflash | Latest reply from mastiles_fanylion

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gingerflash - Member

I wonder if anyone can help with this. I've got a work disciplinary meeting about my internet usage. The issue is that I spent too much time on the web. I've gone through the data for the two days they've picked as examples and I can show that most is work-related. There's nothing dodgy either.

However, of the 25 "sessions" on the two sample days, 18 sessions end with a hit lasting exactly 3 minutes. Does anyone know what this might be? Some are actual sites I've visited like hasbean.co.uk, other are odd like geo.yahoo.com or proxy.pcdn.vresp.com or link.p0.com. Given that they're all exactly 3.00 I'm asusming it's something automatic.

Another thing is the number of hits. There are hundreds lasting less than 5 seconds, most are 0 seconds. What are these?

Thanks
GF.

Posted 3 years ago #
BoardinBob - Member

Posting on the internet to get an answer.

Brilliant.

Posted 3 years ago #
gingerflash - Member

I know. I love the irony.

Posted 3 years ago #
sootyandjim - Member

There are hundreds lasting less than 5 seconds, most are 0 seconds. What are these?

Probably attempted pop-ups (your work system no doubt has a blocker for these) and junk like that.

Posted 3 years ago #
gingerflash - Member

Thanks.

Posted 3 years ago #
terrahawk - Member

emptying bins next month then?

Posted 3 years ago #
mastiles_fanylion - Member

Also see an old thread about the guy who was accused of web use he didn't make - somethign to do with interweb proxy wireless gubbins or something.

Does your company have a clear policy on web use? If they do not, then they can't really do anything. If they do and you have breached it - good luck.

Posted 3 years ago #
gingerflash - Member

It looks like I've got 7.11 minutes of personal use one day and 12.20 the next. I suspect this will go away but it'd be nice to be able to explain away as much as possible.

Posted 3 years ago #
mrsflash - Member

yes, I pointed that one out to him yesterday, thanks M_F.

Posted 3 years ago #
samuri - Member

what software do you have running in the background? do you have any google tools installed in the browser? Really, what software is running automatically on boot up?

the proxy url above is an anonymous proxy, I'm not sure how you'd visit that without knowing about it.... Have you been clicking links on unmoderated forums?

Posted 3 years ago #
mastiles_fanylion - Member

That's cool then - was just looking for it and couldn't find it.

Posted 3 years ago #
gingerflash - Member

The policy allows reasonable personal use. They reckon my time is "unreasonable" but the data doesn't support that. I don't think anyone has looked beyond the number of hits and total time spent.

Posted 3 years ago #
mastiles_fanylion - Member

If they have a 'reasonable use' policy I don't see how they can justify what you have done isn't reasonable - clear rules need clear guidelines.

Posted 3 years ago #
mavis - Member

3 minutes...interesting...

Tools like websense automatically log each hit on a page as 3 minutes, so even if you spend a few seconds on the page it still logs as 3 minutes.

The other shorter hits are likely to be ads, just like the ones on this site!!

Posted 3 years ago #
druidh - Member

I'd have thought that if your usage time was less t an your breaks time, you'd be in the clear.

That proxy server in the list concerns me though. If that's something you've chosen to do, then it's been done to circumvent your employers own restrictions.

Posted 3 years ago #
gingerflash - Member

It's not something I've done deliberately. i wouldn't have a clue how to do it.

Posted 3 years ago #
Pook - Member

On this - what happened to that guy who was sacked? How did his hearing go?

Posted 3 years ago #
samuri - Member

some anonymous proxies allow you to supply the proxy address following by the URL and people might post that full link

e.g. http://proxy.pcdn.vresp.com&URL=porn.com

you might have clicked a link like that by mistake...

Posted 3 years ago #
jlc - Member

It does seem slightly ironic posting a thread about this at about 11.40am when you are due a disciplinary about it, unless you are posting from home. May not look good if they do further checks.

Posted 3 years ago #
jimmy - Member

think the other guy was reinstated in his job, right? was it zedsdead? or zaskar?

Posted 3 years ago #
Del - Member

'reasonable' isn't much of a definition. i'd be fecked if our lot looked at my usage, but still wouldn't worry too much. no policy exists. worst they could do would be to give me a warning.

Posted 3 years ago #
samuri - Member

If I'm ever asked to investigate a usage problem (as opposed to a dodgy web site investigation), it's invariably because the individual's manager think they're a bit of a slacker.

Posted 3 years ago #
nbt - Member

It was Zedsdead

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/serious-it-help-needed/page/7

Posted 3 years ago #
Mrs Toast - Member

If you want a job where you have the freedom to browse t'internet, become a programmer!

Posted 3 years ago #
terrahawk - Member

well? Did you survive?

Posted 3 years ago #
rs - Member

compare your usage with the amount of time the smokers take for fag breaks*, that would be interesting. I have STW open far too long throughout the day.

*edit: unless your a smoker and take a lot of fag breaks too

Posted 3 years ago #
theotherjonv - Member

This is interesting for me too because I have STW open most of the day seeing as many of our programs are portals using IE as a front end and I have IE with tabbed browsing and STW is one of those tabs.

IF (big if) my company wanted to start to look at this what would it measure - total time, # pages viewed or what?

Ironically - posting this from my home PC although my work one is also open because yes, it is just after 9 and yes I am still working - because I have tomorrow off and people need reports done by the weekend!!

Posted 3 years ago #
dave_rudabar - Member

theotherjonv - you need to be careful as the front pages auto-refresh and they'll show up as hits occuring every few mins (or however often they refresh).

Posted 3 years ago #
Rich - Member

dave_rudabar - Member

theotherjonv - you need to be careful as the front pages auto-refresh and they'll show up as hits occuring every few mins (or however often they refresh).

If that is the case then surely it would be a good way to explain away over-use, just say the personal page was open in a separate tab in the background, but not being viewed?

Posted 3 years ago #
rs - Member

If that is the case then surely it would be a good way to explain away over-use, just say the personal page was open in a separate tab in the background, but not being viewed?

noted in case of future requirement

Posted 3 years ago #
mudglutten - Member

Policy is key. We had a guy proven to be spending about 2 hrs/day on the internet. We had no policy so we couldn't get him for excessive use. Eventually, we managed to give him a formal warning on the basis of using company IT services for personal gain, which was covered (much of his use was ebay selling). Even then though, it was only a warning. We now have a crystal clear policy and run Surfcontrol.

All that aside, I can't see how your use could be considered excessive in any way. I trust the hearing went well?

Posted 3 years ago #
NZCol - Member

The policy allows reasonable personal use. They reckon my time is "unreasonable" but the data doesn't support that. I don't think anyone has looked beyond the number of hits and total time spent.

This is a scary area and one i get sucked into quite regularly. Most of the proxy based tools (Websense, SurfPatrol) etc have, in their reporting module a 'threshold' setting which it basically uses to 'decide' if a session is a session or not. So say you open a page and it refreshes every 4 minutes for 10 hours the reporting tool will report your "Total Internet browsing time" as 10 hours. Which is fckng dangerous for an employer because once you have started the ball riolling you actually start to realise that your employee may actually have not been doing that and you have just accused them of it. Of course this is just a reporting thing, you can trawl the logs and manually work it out.
I would say that in your case you should:
1) compile a list of all the unique base URL's you go to (so say http://www.google.com, http://www.singletrackworld.com, http://www.whatever.com) - if theres about 8 million then you are a slacker :wink:. You'll find a whole pile of things you have no idea why they are there and these are referred pages within other pages, like ads and things.
2) Make a list of yoru work related ones and your non-work related ones
3) demonstrate you know what the policy says and make a statement to the effect that if the evidence is based on the reporting tool then it cannot be relied upon given the vagaries of technology to accurately reflect your usage, as in time you spend cruising around the net.
4) Force them to prove to you that you spend actualy time doing it and not passive background page refreshes etc combined with crap reporting tools.
As I say i've defended and supported cases with this and the first thing i do in the defence is rip apart the reporting because it is 100% wrong. On the other side i manually put together sessions and you'll find variable times of URL hopping which start to indicate patterns (like users checking eBay etc every hour and so on). But its a total minefield.

Posted 3 years ago #
NZCol - Member

Although as an aside the best one was the dude who they thought was running a business in work time. He was...he was selling their IT gear on the sly !!

Posted 3 years ago #
mastiles_fanylion - Member

Any news on the outcome Gingerflash?

Posted 3 years ago #
cynic-al - Member

I'm guessing he may not reply during work time.

Posted 3 years ago #

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