I would hope that when the gross misconduct decision was made, it was because there was intent on the part of the employee to cause harm, or to use company tools to cause harm. Innocently going to a banned site shouldn't qualify. The policies are there to give the company the power to respond, as they need to, to protect their name, reputation, etc. Going around a firewall, defeating anti-virus software, etc, would get a letter of reprimand, the first time, unless it was malicious.

I don't think I work for a horrible company at all. The company has placed in the "100 best companies to work for" rankings. Lots of corporate governance awards in the past few years (one of the top boards in the country). Financial results are excellent, very good growth, lots of opportunity. I feel lucky to be there.

Drinking beer on a Friday in a cubicle was popular many years ago. The liability associated with the company condoning drinking before employees headed home pretty much stopped it. No complaints here. The times have changed.

Do you click OK to a warning banner when you sign-on to the network?
Although porn is blocked at most places there are still some places you can access e.g. FF or emailing. And that is enough to fire someone if the company policy says that. Also some users or ;pervert; carry porn on CDs to work. Another no no. These web sites blocks are in place not just to have employees concentrate on work but also protect employers from lawsuits, HR issues e.g. sexual harrassment if a another co-worker walks by and see something he/she does not like seeing at work. Trust me these things have happened.

must be a small company. and when someone gets drunk on the CEO's dime and gets a DUI or hurts someone, guess who is going to get sued.... Mr. Benevolent CEO and his company.

:withstupi Friday or not, it seems unprofessional to drink at work. I don't see the point to coming to work if it's going to be so casual/unproductive that one can drink.

:iagree:

As long as YOU are happy then that is all that counts!

Thanks for the condescending tone :D Having setup many firewalls, I'm well aware of why they are there guys. I'm not that stupid :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

And quite simply, my way of 'getting around' the company firewall is just to bring in a personal laptop from home and surf at lunch! Heck, I'll go out to the parking lot if I have to. I won't break any rules and no one can complain.

Hmm, not sure why that came across so condescending, but apologies if it hit you the wrong way. It was more a response to those asking how to get around firewalls, which was the OP's topic. I was agreeing with Gresch, pointing out that in this day and age, firewalls and the like are there for very good reasons. Our networks are a lot more restricted than they used to be, and if an employee finds a way around the various blocks, there are still the conditions of use terms to deal with.

At my company, we would rather you brought in your personal laptop for personal use at lunchtime, but we won't let it connect through us, wired or wireless, unless you are in a room set up for the consultants, with a DMZ. Employees can also use their work PC for personal use, but only for those sites that make it through variouis filters (Leisure topics are blocked, for example. as are practically all instant messenger apps, as are all popular web mail sites) I am pretty sure that employees can find lots of unsecured WiFi networks in the downtown office area where I work, but none of them should be on our network. The few that have popped up have been detected fairly quickly, and disabled.

Yes, it is all a pain, but so is non-compliance as a listed company.

I hear you. I do SOX 404 compliance for our company and realize how much of a pain it is (for us and my fellow employees who have to do all the paperwork for their individual lines of business). It isn't fun.

I am surprised but my companies network is not fully locked down yet, I thought this would have been something they were working on. I can plug any PC into any jack still. I would have thought they would have locked down the ports to each MAC address, but nothing yet.

I do understand the reasons behind a firewall and a web filter -- life would be rather chaotic without each one. As long as the company is not too restrictive with the web filtering (or at least unlock it during lunch hour) I think it's completely understandable and fair.