Work and Productivity: Not always one in the same...

Recently I received a mild reprimanding from my boss about my gratuitious internet usage and was told to limit it to my 15 minute and lunch breaks.

Since that conversation I have tried to monitor my usage; and by monitor I mean master the art of switching browser windows when I sense her coming, and then feign productivity.

Today, however, my co-worker said to be careful with the internet because she just heard the boss talking about it. Now, I don't know exactally what that means; weather the boss was talking about the office internet usage or my internet usage specifically. Either way I immediately closed my browser windows and began clicking furiously through Purchase Orders to "check for accuracy in our online database"; which, I might add, I had already done yesterday.

Then it dawned on me:
I was now being bullied in to PRETENDING to work. Ok, I am going to preface the follwing with: I know I'm not the greatest out of my office peers. Most everyone else has been there much longer than I, has more experience and get's very frustrated when I ask them questions about procedures. I don't necessarily understand all the jargon, and am not given the most important tasks, but I'm learning. However, when I do have work to do, I DO IT. I don't neglect my tasks for surfing and browsing the web. If I'm on CNN or Google, it is because I have exhausted all of my current tasks.




If only I had solitaire ...

The argument that can now be made is "why don't you seek out more work". I have. I have tried reaching out to my co-workers to see if I can help with anything, learn new tasks etc. The usual response is "I'll let you know if something comes up" or "I don't have anything right now". Which means they are just as bored as I am and are no doubt on wikipedia or watching music videos on Vimeo (both of which I have witnessed). So, at this point I can either: Stare at the wall (there is one person in my office that frequents this activity, no joke), check my email periodically or read a news blurb (my current activity) or pretend to work by aimlessly scrolling for excell documents. Apparently my supervisior would prefer the latter.



I feel that as a supervisor, my associates time would be better used doing something productive. Pressuring them in to acting as though they are hard at work only weakens the group and promotes a lack of true ambition and hard work. Case in point: all I want to do any more is work through my assignments as SLOW as possible to avoid idle time, and so that I always appear busy.

Am I totally off base here? Thoughts would be appreciated.