My Corporate Policies

When I first started work at my current workplace (its name shall not be mentioned here), it was like most of the high tech companies I'd worked for in the past. Cool people, flexible schedule, lots of freedom for its employees. Nobody was really there to watch over your shoulder and check if you're really doing work every minute of the day. As long as you complete your work on time and in high quality, nobody really cares how exactly you divide your time at work.

Well, that's pretty much all changed as our small office is slowly absorbed by a much bigger corporation. First external Instant Messaging capabilities were taken away from us. No more MSN, no more AIM. Next came a proxy server and a firewall. All of our Web traffic is monitored to see how much you "surf" at work. Today I found out that they started to block popular recreational websites, like youtube and gossip sites.

This is getting really ridiculous. Do they really expect all employees to sit at their desks 8 hours day doing work with no breaks? Surfing the web, listening to music videos on youtube, or even chatting occasionally with friends actually helps me produce more high quality code. I cannot sit here for 8 hours straight and just write code non-stop! I find that if I'm stuck on a problem, taking a break by doing something relaxing such as surfing the web for a bit relaxes my brain and lets me look at the problem differently when I come back to work. It gives me a fresh perspective on things and I can often think of better solutions after a short break.

I often don't have set schedule like most others. I work at home a lot; I work at night and on weekends. I sometimes really enjoy work because I get to code and it's like solving puzzles. I just wish my company would be a little more trusting towards their employees. I believe I am a great employee in that I get my work done on time and I care about how good of a job I do.

We're no longer living in a 9-5 world, where people clock in and clock out like machines. With globalization and rapidly advancing technologies, we are no longer bound to a cube in the office or a set schedule. If companies require us to start working odd hours to accomodate external sites or global customers, or to finish an important project, if companies expect that degree of flexibility from their employees, I believe we, the employees, have the right to expect flexibility from their employers as well.

I do not appreciate being treated like a child by my employer, being monitored for my every move. I think your value at work should be measured by what you produce, not what you do every minute or how much time you spend in the office.

Who knows, pretty soon they might take blogspot away from me too. Time to look for a new job? Hmm...food for thought.