While I can sympathize with both sides of this issue, honestly it can be a problem
The bottom line is if no one is complaing about the speed of the network and no one is complaing that "well all Joe does is surf the net all day while I work!! it isnt fair!!" (you know, the employees that are jelous) then companies usually dont tighten the screws too much.
However, if someone is trying to do their job and it takes forever for an app to open, or to access a web site for research, they start to complain they cant do their job, management then looks at it and starts putting the screws on to the IT department to fix the problem.
The IT department looks at it and thinks "hmmm well all we can do is start cutting out access to big bandwidth sites.
So often anything that is graphic intensive (pictures, but mainly video and streaming video) will be the first to go.
IT's don't care because we normally have our own personally configured systems on the other side of the DMZ, or that bypasses the firewall, so we can put the screws to everyone else without impacting ourselves, and in the end that's all that really matters..
And we can do this because we are IT's and we know what we can and cant do without jeopardizing company assets. Besides, we are good at multitasking, I can talk on the phone at the same time handle a user who comes to my desk while still playing a game, reviewing a document, and downloading patches all at the same time. I am more productive in one day than most are in a week.
Ehem.. anyway.
Then if an IT blocks a site and we notice a user trying to circumvent our block or try to get around our wall, we now take that as a personal challenge to our IT technical skills, we will now focus on you like a tiger focus's on its prey.
We will monitor, hunt and stalk your every electronic move and block ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that we personally deem not work related.
And the more we block, the more the user takes it as a challenge, so they start to try to find other ways to get around our system. Until they finally find the Holy Grail!!! --- ANNONYMOUS PROXY SERVERS!!!
Oh dayum!! When a user finds out what a annonymous proxy server is!! Oh man they are now empowered.
It will usually take a while for the IT department to find out that you are using a proxy server (or at least it might SEEM you are getting away with something they don't know about) the truth is, we IT's, we know about proxy servers, we will let you use them for awhile, because we know when you use a proxy server to logon to Myspace, or to your yahoo account, or to your bank account, what is happening most of the time is the people who run the proxy server are gathering all your personal information that travels through it.
You think people put up free proxy servers for you to use out of the goodness of their hearts? Come one doint be so neive. It takes money to build the proxy servers, maintain them, pay for the bandwidth, nothing is free in this world, they have to be getting something out of you using their proxy servers. And guess what it is. Like I just mentioned, all your personal information that travels through it.
So we will let you user a proxy server for awhile, and the next thing you know someone has hacked your myspace account!!! Crap how did that happen!! Someone accessed your bank account!! Ut oh!! Someone access your yahoo email account and sent out spam email from your account!!!
Someone purchased child pornography using the bank account you logged onto through the proxy server and now the police are at your door trying to arrest you!!!
So anyway, after letting you hang yourself for a few weeks going through a proxy server the fun is now out of it for us so we will usually block that one proxy server and find something else productive and entertaining to do.
See to us IT's, everything is a game, we have the power and we know it, it is just most of the world doesn't, so we play, we have fun.
We do our job, don't get me wrong and we do it well but come-on when you have a bunch of whiney users complaining every stinking day that their fricken computer wont read a DVD (well crap it only has a CD reader, it never had a DVD reader) or their computer keeps re-booting (hmmmm finally went to a bad web site that we told you to stay away from and the web site installed a virus and has now crashed your system and you are pissed because you cant go and flirt on myspace on company time, oh dang that sucks).
So yeah, being an IT is a thankless job, no one likes us, the system is too slow and we are not doing our job, so we lock things down, and now we are NAZI's because we have blocked everything and no one can get to anything.
It is a no win situation, so as an IT when you realize no matter what you do, you are going to piss someone off, you might as well enjoy your job, do it to the best of your ability and let the cards fall where they may.
