Me? Surfing? Never!

Yeah, I'm still sore. I have a huge pain in the ball of my left foot, but it'll pass eventually. So till then I just hobble around like an old granny. I moved desks today. I dunno if it's a good or bad thing.... a) My screen is facing outwards towards anyone in the area who cares to look (BAD) b) I am sitting in a corner surrounded by windows and can no have natural sunlight (GOOD) c) I am sitting near my fellow developers who are a nice bunch of folks (GOOD) d) I can turn my desk around if I so chose to have my screen more private (GOOD), but then i may get glare on my screen and I won't be able to look straight out the window (BAD) It's an interesting subject. The subject of monitor placement. In my experience, most workers would prefer to have a screen facing away from the room, and definitely not in line of sight of the boss. Some people like to seclude themselves into a corner and will use bookcases, cupboards and wall-hangings to hide themselves from the rest of their colleagues. Others are happy to be sitting out in the open and don't care if people can see them reading blogs, forums or news sites. I am of the opinion that everyone needs time to relax, unwind and browse the net now and then at work. I probably take 'now and then' to an extreme sometimes, but I am usually careful to make it look like I am working when the boss is around, and to actually get my work done, when work needs doing. There are plenty of times in my line of work where you simply do not have any work to do, so that is when you can get hooked up in the net world all day, and when real work does arrive it can be hard to switch back to 'work-mode' But basically I love my 'Alt-Tabbing' a lot. I use it frequently, but I am conscious that excessive 'Alt-Tabbing' can make you look guilty. It's hard to find a balance between acceptable personal net use and overuse/unacceptable personal use. I have had my shoulder tapped a couple of times in my work life, but I have always been praised that I get my work done fast and well, so as long as you can show that you get the work done, most bosses don't care if you check out sports sites or whatever. So I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. Blogging when I can. Reading other blogs at lunch times and generally having a personal net presence at work. But it may get a bit harder with all these people behind me. Maybe I should get one of those rear-view-mirrors for my monitor. Seen those??

Posted by Mick @ 4/12/2005 03:17:00 pm