Is my boss watching me???

Yes.

After reading an article off of MSN, I remembered that people still suffer under the delusion of privacy in the workplace. Please, allow me to teach those of you who believe this something very important:

Anything that takes place on hardware (or software) owned by a company is property of the company.(<-period)

This means, surfing the net, chatting with your friends, e-mail, webmail, files on the hard drive, and phones (to an extent).

The reasoning behind this is a real reason, and a fake reason:
The fake one first...
If anyone comes to experience their workplace as a hostile one as a result of actions facilitated by company hard/software the company is liable.(<-period)
What this means is that if you write something mean spirited on your monitor and leave, and someone walks into your cubical and sees it, they can sue the company for creating a hostile work environment... It may sound stupid, but now-a-days everyone is overly sensitive... punk-ass-bitches... oh crud!

And now... the REAL reason...

Productivity.

For those of you who can't read very well, the dot at the end of that last word was a period. It signifies the end of the statement. Productivity is the REAL and ONLY reason behind monitoring the activity of their employees. They want to be sure that their employees are in fact working to make the company successful! This is not to say that they are enacting stalinist policies and slapping you across the face for any minor indiscression.

Believe it or not, your boss understands.

He knows that you have to screw around online a little, he may secretly resent not being able to keep you working 150% of the time, but he knows that if he does that; all he'll wind up with is a gaggle of burn-outs.

Winding down at the workplace with a little idle surfing is a prevelage, NOT a right. And once you start realizing that, the better off you will be.

But, keep in mind...

That there are many ways to spy on you, so before you even TYPE anything, think about who just may see it.

And all the information they gather on you, ESPECIALLY e-mail is COMPLETELY admissable in court... So be VERY careful to what you "admit" to.