Sucks to have your acess blocked. AS others have said it's his company and his computers and he can do as he will but he should apply the rules equally.

 

Yeah, I don't know why employers get their panties all bunched up just because someone's net surfing a little. I mean, none of us here would be upset if we mosied on back to the service area and saw the tech. picking out his next pair of boots on the interweb when he's supposed to be working on our bike. We all should accept and understand that a certain amount of personal surfing time is accounted for in the service rates we get quoted.

<sarcasm off>

 

PM sent to the OP.

 

As stated by you, along with many others “his house, his rules.” Perception may not always be reality. By what he saw he assumed you were screwing off on “company time” when actually you’re on your lunch break, as your side of the story states. It would have taken minimal time to inquire about what you were up to. Instead he did what he did in a non-confrontational manner. Which is fine, but if blocking internet access is his way of managing. He should have instructed the IT people to block all other traffic non-work related. Punish one, punish them all. That is fair and balanced in a non-confrontational managerial style. I digress.

Since nobody at your place of employment want to ask questions but rather assume. I don’t know your work or occupation, or rules at work. But taking the “last ten minutes” of your lunch break to surf hdforums to me was a bad decision, on your part. It obviously did not look good and you should have asked yourself that question. The way you confronted the boss’ son and the IT guy was bad decision number two. That only brought negative light to your situation. Knowing your employer or boss is a non-aggressive type manager and regards perception over reality, you placed yourself in a bad situation.

Someone here said they make it a point to “telegraph” from their desk, to everyone, that they are at lunch. Since fifty percent of the workforce agrees with adjusted lunch hours dictated by company work load. Maybe you too should make it a point to your immediate supervisor, or the boss’ son, when you will be on your lunch break. Especially when it is not during normal lunch times, this could avoid any confusion with management when you are eating a sandwich at your desk. You don’t want to be labeled as that guy in the office.

With the current state of this Country and the economy unemployment is rising, there is lower profit for employers, the possibility of higher taxes for employers to pay for national health care for its employees. Companies are looking for reason to show people the door. It is best to just get what needs to be done at work and leave personal matters, personal at your personal time. By taking business time, unless your lunch is unpaid, to surf H-D sites you appear to be the “slacker” or “that guy” employee.

 

Lunch or not it's still the Company Internet connection.

 

Best thing about working from home....I can sit naked and download **** if I wanted to.

(and no, I don't do that....not during the day at least. I just play lots of computer games while waiting for the office to call when someone breaks something)

 

Dont bother with the race card, Whitie has no rights in America!

 

WTF!?!? Where did that come from?

 

What is this world coming to? Imagine that someone actually expects you to work while at work. Pffft.

 

really? gonna go there? the op did not bring up any color at all in his post. now if he said he were white, and was working for a <insert here>, and his stuff were blocked, while those of the same ethnicity were allowed to surf unchecked, then maybe, maybe, you could go there.

i always laugh at the guys who go to the extreme, 'you are on company time, you are not doing company business, therefor, you are stealing'... i could see if you were surfing the net and had a backlog of work to do, then it would be an issue. but, not all jobs are that way, mine comes in waves. i can go for a couple of hours with nothing to do, and then be swamped. so, is it wrong for me to be here right now, when i really don't have anything else going on? maybe yes, maybe no... but i'm glad my employer doesn't really care as long as i get my job done.

for those who suggest to bring in your own laptop, ipad, etc. i don't know about their it department, but that wouldn't work here. it isn't the specific computer that is blocked, but the network firewall is. so my personal laptop would be restricted just as his computer was.

i like my job, and as such, i put forth more effort than i would otherwise. on the other hand, my kid used to work at mcdonalds. they had a policy that if you stood still for longer than 30 seconds, you were 'on break' and expected to clock out. if my job here were like that, i wouldn't like it, and wouldn't work as hard as i do. gotta strike a balance somewhere.