A New York judge has just ruled employees can’t be fired for surfing the Internet at work, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their productivity – he talked about it as an activity similar to using the phone. Techdirt has the details on this. He is to be lauded for his wonderful ruling! Allowing employees to surf the net increases their productivity; it doesn’t decrease it. Those people who surf the net to waste time would find other ways to waste it, so they can’t be used as a reason to curtail Internet access for the productive employees.
Tag Archives: work
Dr. Hercules of Hackensack
From Apple Hot News: “At first glance, Dr. Robert Gallo doesn’t look like Superman. Yet consider his extraordinary powers. He’s the father of 12 children. He’s a popular OB-GYN who remains on a first-name basis with hundreds of patients through every phase of their lives. And he delivers more than 200 babies a year. Luckily, he’’s got a Mac-based practice to help keep him organized.” This is definitely a cool read. I hadn’t known about Mac Practice until now, but this EMR certainly seems to work wonders for that doctor’s office. Here’s the link.
Fifty ways to take notes
The Solution Watch blog has put together a collection of programs/software that one can use to take notes, and it’s worth reading. Here is a snippet:
“I am constantly writing notes. Whether it be for my blog, work, meeting, new ideas, or just basic notes, I am always jotting something down. So I started thinking about all the services I’ve used for taking notes and thought it would be a good idea to share them with you and while I’m at it, to make a list of any others that I find. Now, when it comes to note taking, I personally look for quick and simple. If I have something on my mind, I don’t want to go through some advanced system and climb a mountain just to save a note for myself. There won’t be all the note taking tools out there on my list, but ones that I feel get the job done well…”
Bring your own laptop
Stumbled onto this at Boing Boing and had a look at the original site. The idea is very simple. The employer provides the employee with the money to purchase a reasonable laptop, and lets them take care of the support and other issues. Or lets them use their existing laptop, if they so choose. Here’s the link.
I think it’s great! As a matter of fact, I was thinking of doing this with my next job – if the company’s policies weren’t too stuffy. I know first hand the pain of configuring laptops with group policies meant for desktops. Laptops are very different beasts from desktops. For one thing, they move around so much. For another, users often need to install software when they’re away from IT. Why hamstring their performance with a laptop that’s just been neutered by bad group policies?
At my last job, I wasn’t in charge of the business side of IT – instead, I handled academic IT – and I would cringe every time I saw a laptop that the business IT folks had touched – the users were constantly complaining they couldn’t do this or that, they couldn’t even print, they couldn’t connect to wireless networks, etc. The complaints were without end. Why do this to people? There’s no reason for it, other than the immature need to feel in control at all times… So okay, if you’re working with secret/classified materials, it may be a different story, but that’s a small subset of the work population, not everyone.
Raoul Pop 