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A coworker watches video with headphones on his second monitor while working (no protest from me he gets his work done) and I'm wondering what others do.

Related question. Do government jobs have super-strict computer use rules?

There isn't a choice for music/podcasts and video, but that's what I do. I'm at a V100 firm. If I'm drafting/researching, I listen to music that helps me concentrate like classical or ambient. If I'm doing doc review that is kind of brainless but still requires thought, I might listen to a podcast or music with lyrics. If I'm doing completely brainless tasks like really simple doc review or similar, I might have netflix or hulu on on my second monitor.

I think the key is to not do what would make your work worse. So if I were researching/drafting, there is no way I could also watch tv as it requires too much thought.

Federal job here, and I guess it’s fairly strict. You’re not supposed to stream stuff on your government computer, though I’ve seen people do it (I don’t think anything super bandwidth intensive though - more like having a basketball game on on a Friday afternoon or a podcast than streaming large amounts of music and movies. Sometimes we get reminded of the rule, which suggests they noticed the bandwidth going up). You will also sometimes run across sites that are blocked as either a security risk or inappropriate, although there isn’t much direct blocking so that people can investigate targets’ web presence and so on. You can use the computer for de minimis personal use stuff. (We get a lot of trainings about what we can/can’t do and security concerns.)

My impression is that IRS is much more restrictive and you simply can’t access most social media.

Personally I couldn’t watch videos or listen to actual podcasts while working anyway - I can do music with lyrics, but that’s it. I just use my phone.

Anonymous User wrote:There isn't a choice for music/podcasts and video, but that's what I do.

The "videos" option was meant to include music and podcasts. If you're watching a movie you're presumably listening to the audio too?

Accidentally posted this as anon. I'm tlsthrowaway1. There should be a way to de-anonymize your post.

Nice. Validation.

The sound of thunder/rain all day.