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I've known I've had a serious problem with the internet for at least ten years. It's been a struggle managing it but I've managed to get along mostly by essentially banishing the internet from my life in any way I can - no internet at home, no smartphone with a data plan, and at work I had found ways to block distracting websites (like, you know, this one) --- while I'm on that thought let me plug the Cold Turkey app; if you're struggling with the internet and you're able to install it this thing might just save your life! Started a new job two months ago, though, and the employee sign on accounts have all privileges locked away - and none of my tricks to keep the unwanted web away from me work here. I've tried my damnedest to find another way but it does appear without admin rights there just isn't a reliable way to block myself from the internet without affecting other aspects of the job (typical Outlook/Skype arrangement, servers we connect to, etc.). Can't install any software. Can't edit the hosts file. Can't remove any web browsers. Chrome has extensions that block sites, but only on Chrome - our laptops come with three web browsers. Although I've mostly caught up now, I had already been falling behind and had resorted to taking my work home in order to get it done - I haven't told anyone I've been doing this, I'm hourly and have been doing this after my shift ends; I don't even really mind not getting paid for my time working from home since I can hardly say I'd been working during my actual shift hours anyway. Some of these were all-nighters. In some ways even worse are the evenings where I simply can't pry myself away from my desk while looking at worthless internet bullshit 'til I'm about the only person left in the building and the janitor walks in and we exchange an awkward wave. I'm getting desperate. I've disabled my work laptop's wifi through the BIOS (it wouldn't be too hard to turn it back on again, but since I haven't committed the steps to do this to memory it's just inconvenient enough to keep the impulse at bay. I've also recently been unplugging the LAN from my station (and taking the cord all the way to my car) 'til I must have a network connection to do something job-related, which is an amazing relief but although my work is pretty independent I've already ran into situations where I miss a coworker's email and they've already gone home by the time I get re-connected and can get back to them. I don't think there's any avoiding it: eventually (and probably pretty darn soon) I'm either going to have to talk to my manager about this or I'm going to end up fired over something relate to this (or worse- I haven't been getting good sleep lately and have a half-hour+ commute in rush hour traffic). I've never told anyone in my professional life about my problem before. And my experiences telling people in my personal life don't fill me with encouragement - the virtually unanimous initial reaction from people is always this little laugh, and while I don't think they mean it in a mocking way, nobody seems to believe or understand just how serious this is until I explain how it can and occasionally has completely wrecked my life. Hell, even afterwards I still don't think people really 'get' it. There are reasons to believe that a meeting with my manager might go relatively well. I've gotten along great with her so far, and she seems to be a smart and empathetic boss. I've gone to counseling for this issue and from that I'd been diagnosed with ADHD (I think the web 'addiction' is something like 2/3 a manifestation of my ADHD and 1/3 something else I'm not sure of... my treatment has definitely helped but it always seems like eventually the web "gets" me if I don't simply keep myself away from it; and I have to be careful because sometimes my meds can even make the internet problem worse than it already is) and I did note that in the paperwork when I first signed up with the job. It's a verified condition I can point to rather than just me being lazy and irresponsible. I guess I feel like there's this balancing act I have to perform here where I have to convince my boss this is a serious enough problem that I have to have addressed in order to actually do my job properly, but I feel like I'll be causing some kind of trouble if I let on how truly desperate I am, and how shady I feel for trying to keep this inconspicuous and how I feel like a freakshow just this far away from a nervous breakdown because I honestly kind of am a weirdo with a bizarre lack of control/discipline over such a stupid, silly thing like the goddamn internet. I'm hoping against hope that the majority of responses are along the lines of "Holy poo poo dude, you're freaking out way too hard over this, just talk to your manager and they'll try to accommodate you" because I really do like this job otherwise - it's the kind of work I'm usually great at (when not distracted), comfortable clean environment, enjoyable co-workers, great pay. I feel like I have a lot to lose here. Yes I'm at work right now.
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Oct 25, 2017 00:12
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 08:03 |
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internet addiction is not listed in the DSM-V, so as far as your employer is probably concerned, it is not a real condition. if you go to your boss and say you just can't stop shitposting when you should be working, he may very well fire you, and i might too. if you ask for reasonable accommodation for your medically diagnosed ADHD, that's a different story and it might help! but i'm pretty sure that any accommodation given will still require you to not be a lazy piece of poo poo and do your work like everyone else
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Oct 25, 2017 01:59
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Yeah I'm normally the last person to say "suck it up" to other people with legit mental health issues but there's no way around this, you can't avoid the Internet forever if you plan on working in an office environment.
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Oct 25, 2017 04:01
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You should try working construction. Some types of factory work can also be done without Internet access. Or treat your ADD.
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Oct 25, 2017 13:26
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Go to a therapist / counselor who specializes in addiction.
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Oct 25, 2017 16:23
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My addiction to having a home and food to eat is greater than my addiction to posting on SA. Maybe start making lists of what you have to do, and focus on that instead?
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Oct 26, 2017 13:29
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I think my OP played up the more dramatic emotional parts of the situation and got the ball-rolling in a more E/N direction than I originally intended. I'm hoping we can still get a conversation going about best approaches for discussing help and/or accommodations with management concerning mental or other sensitive conditions. Even if the consensus is that my particular case is bullshit or whatever we can talk in more general terms.JewKiller 3000 posted:internet addiction is not listed in the DSM-V, so as far as your employer is probably concerned, it is not a real condition. if you go to your boss and say you just can't stop shitposting when you should be working, he may very well fire you, and i might too. if you ask for reasonable accommodation for your medically diagnosed ADHD, that's a different story and it might help! but i'm pretty sure that any accommodation given will still require you to not be a lazy piece of poo poo and do your work like everyone else This is good advice - if/when I have 'The Talk' I shouldn't present it as 'I have an addiction' and focus on minimizing symptoms of my diagnosed medical condition, since that's not only much less "I am an out-of-control crazy person" sounding, it's just straight-up exactly the situation in more professional terms. It's not really an addiction - I don't get internet cravings or withdrawals - I often use the term "internet addiction" out of habit and as a shorthand way to refer to the weird looping attention-sucking mental trap I get into where I simply cannot stop browsing beyond reason. Today I had a regular meeting with my manager and I almost decided to approach the subject when she brought up that she noticed that some emails I had recently sent her were off-hours. "I get it when you find yourself really in the zone and you don't want to quit a project but just let me know beforehand because I don't want to be concerned about you not getting paid for working" was her general sentiment and the conversation moved on. lizardman fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Oct 27, 2017 |
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Oct 27, 2017 02:04
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Talk to a therapist about dealing with this. Only talk to your employers if the therapist thinks it's necessary. If it gets to that point, your therapist will be able to document and explain your condition better than you can.
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Oct 31, 2017 06:07
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Have you talked to the IT dept? Bring them a box of cookies and ask them for their help. You'd be surprised how helpful they could be to a user who a) isn't demanding that they do something and b) is asking for more restrictions, rather than fewer.
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Oct 31, 2017 15:42
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lizardman posted:hourly and have been doing this after my shift ends; I don't even really mind not getting paid for my time working from home since I can hardly say I'd been working during my actual shift hours anyway. As an employer, stop doing this. It’s a legal issue, not an ethical one. If you are doing work you need to get paid. Period. Companies can get sued for withholding pay, and while they didn’t ask you to take the work home it’s still enough to warrant red flags.
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Nov 3, 2017 01:04
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If there's anyone out there curious to know how this turned out, I decided to tell my manager about my situation, who got the ball rolling on getting an accommodation request reviewed by HR. It took some filling out some forms and a letter from my physician but the accommodation was eventually approved. HR got IT to add some network restrictions on my account so that I can only get to relevant work-related sites through the web browser. This whole process took a few weeks (it's a bit of a bureaucracy) but in the interim my manager let me disconnect the data cables for most of the day as a temporary work-around. Since then I've gotten caught up on my work, not to mention sleep, been getting back into a standard routine (I'm able to work out again!), and I'm feeling happy and healthy at a job I enjoy and that I'm good at. This is one of the best decisions I've ever made. My thanks to the goons with helpful advice. Oh, and a hearty  to anyone out there who was thinking "suck it up and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you lazy piece of poo poo with a fake excuse for a mental condition". You folks can kindly suck my balls.
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Dec 12, 2017 01:57
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Hosts file on your work computer blocking every single web site you frequent that isn't work-related. One on your phone, too, if you have to. Problem solved (unless you use a VPN?).
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Dec 30, 2017 16:29
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lizardman posted:If there's anyone out there curious to know how this turned out, I decided to tell my manager about my situation, who got the ball rolling on getting an accommodation request reviewed by HR. It took some filling out some forms and a letter from my physician but the accommodation was eventually approved. HR got IT to add some network restrictions on my account so that I can only get to relevant work-related sites through the web browser. This whole process took a few weeks (it's a bit of a bureaucracy) but in the interim my manager let me disconnect the data cables for most of the day as a temporary work-around. Since then I've gotten caught up on my work, not to mention sleep, been getting back into a standard routine (I'm able to work out again!), and I'm feeling happy and healthy at a job I enjoy and that I'm good at. This kind of extreme procrastination is pretty typical of ADHD (which it looks like you've been diagnosed with?) and you will probably find that medication helps a lot with getting you to focus on work.
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Feb 12, 2018 16:49
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 08:03 |
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lizardman posted:
Yeah gently caress those imaginary people that even if they existed didn't say anything!
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Mar 9, 2018 05:16
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