The Art of Surfing at Work

Figure 1 - An example of positioning the browser window, with relevant work in the background.

We’re all guilty of it. The computer is right there in front of us, and the internet connection is really fast and tempting. We get seduced into surfing, reading news, fooling around, or even commenting on peoples’ blogs. So how do we avoid getting caught? How do we look busy? What are the reactions to getting caught? All of these questions will be discussed in this post.

Avoiding getting caught:
For this I have discovered a few tricks, although I’m sure many have discovered them independently as well. The first is a classic so here it goes:

Open up the browser, and then resize the window. The size of the window is directly related to how much you can cover with your body from someone looking from behind. It also depends on how close you sit to the computer and whether you lean to one side or the other. Personally I place the window in the bottom centre, with a little offset towards the right. The size of the window is about 1/4 of the full screen size. I’m currently working on a formula which will take in all the variables discussed to give you the maximum window size with minimum risk of getting caught. I will take time at home and use high powered math, along with super computers to formulate this very important equation… or I can just do it during work.

This tip also qualifies as a classic. For this you have to open several programs which are relevant to your work. Usually a pdf. Document or a word or excel file do the job. Now pop open the internet browser as discussed in the previous tip. As you are surfing place the mouse pointer over the minimization dash in the top corner of the window. That way when you minimize, you will look like you are doing work. Dina suggested that I use Alt-tab, for quick switching between applications. I thank Dina for her cooperation.

In an emergency, you can always count on the “show desktop” icon which comes standard with Windows XP, and 2000. This buttons minimize all windows and shows the desktop. I thank the programmer behind this button. Oh yeah you can use the key-board shortcut (Windows buttons + D) to jump to the desktop as well.

There’s one more trick that you can use to protect you against the quick glance. Turn off image loading from your browser’s options. Images are a quick way of knowing what the employee is reading on the net. So turn them off and surf away.

Got anymore? I would seriously like to know them.

In a later post, I will show you a 100% guaranteed way of writing personal e-mails at work without getting caught :D Stay tuned

Technorati Tags: Surfing, Internet, Wasting time, Work, Office