Charlie can surf

Surfing for fun at work is acceptable at work to the vast majority of employers, a new survey claims. A poll of 1400 US employers reveals that 82 per cent "condone Web surfing in the office". It beats giving staff more holidays, we suppose. Of the 82 per cent of employers who accept the practice of non work-related Web surfing, "74.1 per cent believe that news-oriented web sites are acceptable for employees to visit, and 48.5 per cent permit visits to stock sites". Good news for trainee day traders, then. Around half condone employees visiting message boards (including job message boards?). Travel sites head up the rear on 31.9 per cent, followed by retail (21.3 per cent) and entertainment (13.5 per cent). The survey was conducted by employee message board Vault.com which describes itself as The Workplace Network. More findings are available in a 34-page Survey of Internet Use in the Workplace. This covers topics ranging from an employer's right to monitor Web use by employees, to the Internet's effect on productivity. Recent firings at Xerox and the New York Times of porn-surfing-at-work employees prompted the study, Vault says. ®