On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 10:57:10 -0400, Duesenberg wrote:



If internet browsing is a way to keep them at their desks, then they
apparently do not have enough work to do, or are not doing the work they
have to do.


I may disagree a little with this thought.

I was a welder for a bandsaw blade company for 8 years. Orders often
came in the afternoon in a rush. There were many if not most mornings
where for 4 hours I had no blades to weld because nobody would order
before lunch.

Of course it was poor business to tell people that they can't have
blades in the morning if they were in a rush so my boss paid me many a
day to sit and wait for the odd morning order. Since I was the only guy
that welded blades he always wanted me available at the shop, just in
case. And he was willing to pay me for that and the customers rewarded
him (and me) in the end. But sometimes it was just palin boring and
mind numbing sweeping the floors, just waiting for the fax machine to
spit out an order.

Fireman are like that. Paid to wait to be called, and hopefully they
never get called cause when a fireman is asked to work, somebody is
either losing a life or a home and that's not good.

Good examples, but pretty unusual.
My son is a mechanic, and when it's slow the guys in his shop goof off
on the net. It's all up to what management tolerates.
Hell, I had one job as a heat treater on the carburizer crew at IH
where I slept a couple hours each shift. On a big chair with my feet
propped on a machinist's chest.
My foremen often tapped my shoulder to wake me up when passing out
paychecks.
Of course these aren't desk workers.
I was a desk worker for years, and to me going on the internet at work
was goofing off. I didn't do it.
Same with reading the newspaper at my desk.
I always found work that I was paid for to do. Paid very well.
Some of my managers thought differently, and browsed the net, bought
and sold stuff on eBay, etc., at work.
Even then, there's desk work and there's desk work.
Some at a desk can only do their work in spurts.
It's all up to management, job demand, and/or personal ethics.

--Vic