Your Work Is Not Safe For Sex Or Boobies
A long time ago I ranted against the blog tradition of labeling adult links as “not safe for work”:
I hate the way people refer to ErosBlog as not work safe. It’s a pet peeve. See, the deal is, ErosBlog is safe for work, although perhaps not conducive to getting any done. If it’s not safe for you to view ErosBlog where you work, it’s your work that’s not safe for ErosBlog. Just because some of my readers live in the United States and choose to work in environments where they are treated like horny fifth-graders and assumed to be unable to make responsible choices about viewing and displaying sexual material, there’s no reason to call the blog unsafe, especially when other readers and potential readers live or work in less repressive societies (or environments, such as their own office or home) where the blog is perfectly safe. Folks, if your work isn’t safe for ErosBlog, consider getting some different work! And if you can’t do that (and I know a lot of folks feel stuck in their lives) at least don’t assume that everyone else in the world is in the same boat.
Fast forward to today, when security expert Bruce Schneier posted a blog entry about the novelty nude Euro bills being passed as real money:
The very first comment in response to his post was a stiff complaint about the link he posted:
Bruce, next time, it would be an idea to indicate the link might not be safe for work. Some of us might have some explaining to do if looking at those images.
I really liked Bruce’s incredulous response:
You have got to be kidding. Where in the world do you work?
The sentiments from my long-ago rant were echoed by a different commenter:
I think if you could get into trouble by just reading the article linked by Bruce, then you really have a harsh working environment. What about a change of work?
Sadly, several other folks chimed in to support the complainer. It’s not just one person who wants their links pre-vetted to include warnings against newsworthy boobie artwork, it’s lots of people. The job culture, I swear it’s a menace.
Shorter URL for sharing: http://www.erosblog.com/?p=1581
I refuse to label my site as not safe for work.
Here’s a fucking clue for the masses: YOU’RE AT YOUR JOB. DO IT.
I mean, how goddamned hard is it? You’re at a job, you’re paid to be working, you shouldn’t be surfing fucking websites, so people like us shouldn’t have to clarify things.
Really, I just don’t understand, but perhaps I’m a bear of little brain and I missed the bloody memo.
Most companies with policies about NSFW images also do not allow browsing to non-work related websites. If they’re so concerned about what links they’re clicking on, then they don’t need to be clicking on links, do they?
My work, for example, has a non-work browsing policy. What do I do? I stick to typically safe sites like news sites. And I don’t click on it unless I know what I’m clicking on. That’s all. Self-policing works.
If you don’t get any breaks during your day at work I wonder how productive you are after a while … :confused:
What is mainly to blame is today’s society that regards sex as something that needs to be hidden away as it is “dirty”. I simmply can’t understand how someone can be offended when I look at a naked body on a webpage. They don’t have to look.
I can, however understand some companies policies, not so much because of the visible content of some sites but because of the invisble stuff. I work in IT and the amount of time we spend cleaning viruses of people’s machines is incredible. And guess what, all those machines have been used to look at porn sites. Real dodgy ones that give you more than you bargain for. But when you ask people to not surf there because of the virus, they reply that without the virus there would be no need for our department and therefor we should stop complainig. If instead the company has a policy that forbids surfing to those pages people listen and comply.
Big brother watches us at work…at any given time someone can shadow my computer(the bastards).
This tends to make me nervous, so the only surfing I do at work is to check my bank account(It’s not worth stealing from) or read the news. As you can imagine this gets pretty damn boring but does have the effect of people actually working at work..They even disabled the msn/yahoo messengers..wankers
To me, the NSFW tag has never exclusively referred to workplaces. It’s more of a convenient way of saying “viewer discretion advised”, i.e. be careful if the computer is in a public area or around family members/friends/roommates who might be upset by the content.
I personally like the NSFW tag. I’m a college student who likes to kill time in the computer lab inbetween classes. I like to use the time between classes to relax, so I usually spend it trolling forums/blogs/various non-productive sites. Since the computer is in a public setting, I limit myself to visiting only tame sites–nothing that would raise suspicion and get my internet access revoked–and save the sex blog reading for when I’m home.
That said, if I was at the lab and went a blog or site that is normally “work safe” only to find porn/questionable image staring at me, I’d be annoyed. If a webmaster or blogger suddenly starts adding porn/questionable content to their site, they should at least warn their readers. It’s all about expectation. I don’t expect to see a NSFW tag here because it’s obvious from the description what kind of content I can expect. If I went to a site labeled “Bob’s Financial Advice” and saw porn, I’d get pissed.
It isn’t Big Brother checking out your workplace computer. Its the guy who actually owns it.
BTW, it isn’t the law as legislated that labels such pictures as hostile, but courts convinced of it by some other lawyer.
Many employers are now blocking out blogs (both sexual and non-sexual) as well as fourms, webmail, etc for fear that sensitive information might leak out in the comments people post.
A freind I know works for a company that monitors and reviews every site visited by thier employees, with random “spot checks” where an employee is presented with a list of domain names that have been visited, and they’re expected to justify each and every one. NSFW tags are obviously irrlevent in that company, since EVERYTHING is not safe for work there.
People are too uptight.
What is mainly to blame is today’s society that regards sex as something that needs to be hidden away as it is “dirty”. I simmply can’t understand how someone can be offended when I look at a naked body on a webpage. They don’t have to look.
Some thoughts:
Some companies are just nasty and Orwellian, but I think more often they’re just erring on the side of caution with modern sexual harrassment law. If somebody ever has a sexual harrassment complaint, they can argue that the company’s not blocking porn sites was evidence of a “hostile workplace environment”. You can’t really blame the companies for being paranoid–blame legislators instead for overbroad laws.
I’m surprised at the first three comments. Do you guys really spend 100% of your time at work working? You never chat with the guy in the next cube, or have a cup of coffee? Come on. Anyway, not all jobs are structured like factory assembly lines; many jobs are more like firemen. You’re there to put out fires; if there are no fires at the moment, nobody cares if you’re doing something else.
Anyway, this is all moot for me; I work at Playboy, so if I’m looking at porn sites people assume I’m working…
Surprised?
Yeah, I did my damned job. I worked in television, I worked on monitors and VCRs. Every day I had deadlines or shows wouldn’t make it to air. My company also took away breaks, but we got three-day weekends as a result of it. It was a good company, and I was loyal.
On lunch, I might surf a few sites, but I sure as hell didn’t do blogs where I didn’t know what would materialize.
But it still comes down to ME as a writer not wanting to classify, judge, or censure my own work. If you, as a viewer/reader are in a place where you’re not at liberty to look at things of a sexual nature, then maybe you shouldn’t be surfing blogs and other dubious sites where content is being generated for the A.D.D. generation, y’know?
It just irritates me, this expectation of being hand-held as to what’s “safe” for work or “not safe” for work. No one wants to accept personal responsibility for anything anymore, and this is just another example of passing the buck. “Yeah, but you didn’t say it was duuurty…” Pfft. Right.
Sounds like you’ve got a sweet gig, though, Kim. hah.
I hate people who blame others for everything. When at work your time belongs to the company and the company that pays you to surf the web is not the company I want to invest in though it might be a job I want to take I mean I do it for free already. Job=Money=DOING YOUR JOB…no whinning.
I’m with steff… I know everyone’s doing it – sex blog traffic notoriously spikes during US 9-5 hours – but that doesn’t make it okay!
(Then again, I’m guilty of trying to access work-related sites at college – which wouldn’t be a problem if I wasn’t a phone sex girl.)
Perfect timing on this post!
I have a friend who works as a technician in a lab, he has only just been provided with a PC for his work area, he isn`t PC literate, and is using free time during his lunch and tea breaks to surf and learn about the machine.
2 Days ago, he sent me an email asking for the link to my site, I was flattered that he was interested, and sent him a link.
Yesterday I got a phone call asking how he could “de-zep” his PC to remove all traces of my site in case he got into trouble for the content…….?!!!!!
My first response was “Are you kidding…?”….and then I realised he was serious.
I’m pretty well on the same page as Lurking.
Most of my blog’s readers have a general idea of how explicit my site is, and surf accordingly. However, when I link to (or post) content that’s more explicit than normal, I like to include a warning as a courtesy to my readers so that they don’t get an unpleasant (or TOO pleasant, as the case may be) surprise.
Meanwhile, knowing that you hate “NSFW”, I put “NC17” by your link instead, to indicate that it has adult content.
Is that better? worse? same?
*ahem* I’d, um, just like to make a comment about the Euro notes. I think we should get something like that started here, perhaps matching the denomination with the appropriate celebrity. Say, Paris Hilton on a 99-cent note, Ashlee Simpson on a $3 note, Anna Nicole Smith on a billion-dollar note. Any comments?
Ha! I love that idea.
:O I’m going to have to plead guilty to this one. I have linked here a few times and in some cases I did warn and in others I did not, depending on the content. I am not sexually repressed, but the reality is, that much of society in the U.S. of A. is…..or, pretends to be. So, for example, if you work for the government, and click on a link coming to a site regarding sexuality and which contains adult nudity and sex…..it’s a good idea to know these things so you wait until you get home to have a look.
I think it is ridiculous……but, it is also reality. And, reality often sucks.
Sorry, but, if I continue to link to this site, it will be with a warning most likely – because of the subject matter and photographs. Not due to any personal aversion to your site – I love this site.
Maybe, some day, society won’t be so elementally stupid and narrow-minded about sex.
I think there’s been some misunderstanding of my point, here.
I’m resigned to the fact that an adult content warning of some sort is going to be seen as desireable by some of the folks who link to sex blogs. I don’t really have a problem with that.
It’s really the *nature* of the warning tag that gets my hackles up. The “not safe for work” concept puts the philosophical onus on my content, suggesting that there’s something about my content that’s inappropriate for viewing in the workplace. Whereas, the reality is that it’s *workplaces* that are broken, if folks are going to get in trouble for viewing a picture of a spoof euro with not-very-attractive boobs on it.
The other problem with the “not safe for work” tag is that it’s so horrifyingly provincial; it assumes that the audience for the material including the tag is overwhelmingly from the United States and engaged in corporate office work. The world at large is far bigger and contains more economic alternatives than the NSFW tag acknowledges.
Hello
Les sites adulte pendant les heures de travail, c’est pas prévu par les employeurs …! Mais c’est quand même de la que viennent la plupart des visites. Pour moi les plus mauvais jours d’audience sont le samedi et le dimanche !
Salut