need participants for an international study

computers at school - I think they can be useful, as a teaching aid to make the lesson more interesting and interactive for the kids. at work - mine certainly helps me to prepare drawings and documents. The old way with pen and secretary was a drudge and slow in comparison. Bossfellas sometimes spend an overlong (imho) time preparing a pretty graph. My employer is pretty open about what is on the pc - from talking to IT guys I've known for years - we're allowed a 'small' space and time for personal stuff, but any excessive use is stamped on. Monitoring software exists, mainly to make sure we're not installing unlicensed stuff which would get the company in trouble, seems reasonable. Some users are more locked down, but most engineers are allowed quite a lot of freedom. Since the company provides all the software, we assume it is their responsibilty to protect the pc, they also block any dodgy appearing web accesses (all web accesses are logged for possible checking). different countries - not sure, presumably there are different perceptions of personal responsilbility and paranoia ... although from the various foreign (mostly engineers) guys I've met we are pretty similar. hth Neil

Hi Neil,

interesting stuff -- sounds like you have a good working relationships with employers, employees and IT staff.

M> > Hi all,

Well... I've been working here for 33 years now (!) and have come to the conclusion that paranoia on the part of the workers is no more than the paranoia on the part of the management. What seems to happen is that some law comes in about unfair dismissal or other 'rights' and management leap to be seen to comply. If that means that someone gets a raw deal (eg keystroke logging) it's usually due to lack of foresight or incompetence on the part of the person designing or implementing the new stuff,or overzealous compliance. The French appear to have a more relaxed attitude to complying with the various EU directives - they agree then ignore. The few induhviduals who actually take advantage of the company provided resources inevitably move on after a while, or are stamped on after suitable logging/ evidence gathering. The company I work for is a large organisation (like Dilbert's) but seems to tread very carefully so as to not get hoist on 'unfair' treatment, to the point of appearing wimpish till the final straw is added. The IT staff I know include those who check internet usage etc, but they would much rather do something interesting than plough through loads of logs looking for misdemeanours, so tend to not worry about the little things. They are also more than willing to try to explain the monitoring from the company & legal viewpoint, so we don't regard them as company spies. hth Neil