I want my Chess.com fix!
Submitted by
SonofPearl on Mon, 03/03/2008 at 1:15pm.
Do you access Chess.com from the internet while at work? Count yourself lucky.
Until recently my employer's policy on personal internet use was very clear - you couldn't do it. At all. Forget it. A sackable offence (seriously 
). Now, I love playing chess, but I'm not about to sacrifice my job, so I stick to the rules.
Imagine my excitement recently when I heard a rumour that the policy had been reviewed and was about to change. Yay! Then everyone received an email from the IT department explaining that personal usage of the internet would be allowed soon, provided it was during your own time (i.e. lunch time - which is flexible - anything from 30 mins to 2 hours).
Of course, websites containing inappropriate content would still be banned. I scanned through the list quickly and it contained just what you might expect e.g. no gambling, no pornographic sites (of course not!). But then I saw it - a banned category of internet use which made my heart sink:
Huh? What's wrong with playing games? I sounded out my wife (who is an IT technician) and she said their issue was probably bandwith. When they say 'games' they probably mean graphics intensive, real time online games.
Talk about having your bubble burst. Just as I thought I might finally be able to access Chess.com at work, the chance is taken away again.
I've emailed the IT department to ask if chess sites would be allowed, but frankly I don't hold out much hope - the wording seems pretty clear. So despite the fact that chess was probably the last thing they were thinking about when they decided to ban playing games, the ban will probably still apply.
Arggggggh! 
Do you work in an office and have internet access? Does your employer let you use the internet for personal use?