Well, the City of Houston doesn’t have stock to short, but I keep wondering how long until someone decides to crack down on the net at work.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Companies are starting to ban Web access, block instant messaging services to squash discreet conversations among chatty co-workers and prohibit employees from watching sporting events on their computers.

At Ward’s Downstate hospital, Internet access for nurses and other staff is severely restricted. Only a few employees can even use the hospital’s e-mail system to send a personal note, and they cannot use Internet-based e-mail systems, such as Gmail or Hotmail.

At one point, Ward even blocked access to the Google search engine, but he has since rescinded that policy, even though many of the Web sites that a search query will return cannot be accessed.

I think Glenn Reynolds puts it well:

Sell your stock in companies with policies like this one. The management is obviously stupid, and the only employees likely to stay, long-term, in the face of this kind of a policy are those who can’t get a job someplace else, someplace where the management is brighter than a bag of hammers

Damn Glenn, you don’t have to strike so close to home, you know?