Ok hopefully the title of this thread caught your attention. Here's the deal, with the advent of the computer and internet access, many fire departments, organizations or places of employment feel their employee's have greatly mis-used the internet for a large amount of potential employee lost time while at work.
With that said, who here is addicted to FFN and what amount of time do you spend browsing, reading and posting on FFN while at your place of employment?
If your Fire Chief came to you and said, they are going to block access to FFN due to its "Social Networking Status" how would you react to the disseminated information?
I understand your point about "its your down time" but technically if you are on department computer, then yes they have the right to everything that you do/see on their computer system.
In your eyes would viewing porn or running a side business on the internet be OK during your downtime as well?
For me this site is time well spent.... a good mix of entertainment, networking, busting chops, and learning from what others do or have done. I log in when I take coffee breaks throughout the day (yeah I drink a lot of coffee) cause its important to hydrate down here in this Carolina heat.
The only thing we are banned from is using "Spyspace" due to it being blamed for messing up our old computer, anything remotely fire related is fine when we are on duty but have down time.
I agree with your first statement, the internet is mis-used at work. I might check the weather at lunch, but other than that I stay off of it, at work.
I do not spend anytime on FFN @ work becuase this website is blocked by our IT department....Requests to get it unblocked have failed becuase it was like "facebook for firefighters" Even when I showed all of the valuable information and videos that were located on the site it did not matter.....so I do all my FFN here at home.....As for other sites I would say some misuse it and some dont.....I look at the same fire service stuff everyday at work just like I do at home....technology has become so much a part of our job it is tempting to spend alot of time on the computer especially when staffing, shcedualing of training classes, repair reqs, record keeping, PPCR's, fire reporting, pre plans, etc are all on line or on an internal server.
Lets see theres when... and oh yes I think that time and maybe ? yes I think that time too... well sorta about that much time and sometimes this time but not all the time. I'm not sure about how much time but could be that amount too. Heck if I know. I am actually not here right now just a disguise or mirage. What the heck differance does it make anyhow. I am the Chief !
If you are an injured firefighter like I am, having something to do can make all the difference, specially when there are physical limitations involved... so, as a result, I will have to make the following statement:
"hello, my name is mike and I am addicted to the FFN"
good... now I feel better, and no thanks to you ENABLERS out there... : )