KEY POINTS:
Surf on, comrades. The UK's Trades Union Congress has jumped to the defence of workers who goof around on the internet while they are meant to be slaving away for their bosses.
As employers clamp down on the way their staff use the internet in the office, unions are staging some resistance.
Companies with "internet usage policies" and restrictions on Facebook and other social-networking sites are just making themselves look ridiculous.
They didn't complain when new technology allowed work to invade our home life. They have no right to complain now that home is invading our work life.
There is little mistaking the debate in the UK - and it is one that is likely to be replicated in every other developed economy.
How we use our computers at work may not quite rank with global warming or the subprime crisis in the league tables of crucial issues.
Yet it may well have more impact on how most of us live our daily lives.
Most office workers have a computer screen and an internet connection on their desks.
Mostly, they will be using that for work. Some of the time, they will be using it for the stuff of everyday life: checking their bank balance, emailing their friends, or researching which brand of golf club might finally get their swing sorted.
Employers, not surprisingly, put some restrictions on that.
A survey by the UK's Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform found that 89 per cent of big companies and 63 per cent of all companies had an "acceptable usage policy". Likewise, 80 per cent of big companies log and monitor web usage.
Some employers are getting even tougher. Kent County Council has just banned its 32,000 employees from using Facebook, according to a BBC report. The law firm Allen & Overy banned Facebook earlier this year, then backed down after complaints from staff, according to the trade magazine Legal Week.
It's not surprising the Trades Union Congress, which represents 6.5 million UK workers, is taking a stand.
"Simply cracking down on use of new web tools like Facebook is not a sensible solution to a problem, which is only going to get bigger," general secretary Brendan Barber said. "It's unreasonable for employers to try to stop their staff from having a life outside work, just because they can't get their heads around the technology."
They could probably have gone further. Employees are entitled to spend at least part of the day on line.
While it is reasonable for employers to stop their staff looking at pornographic, violent or racist websites, if they try to restrict day-to-day surfing, it's pointless.
There are three reasons for that.
First, the internet has blurred old boundaries between work and non-work time. We all check our emails and take business calls on our mobiles when we are 'off' work.
The Blackberry means we are constantly in the office. So our bosses can hardly complain if we do our banking, plan our holidays or just relax by sending email jokes in the workplace.
If work seeps into home life, it isn't surprising that home has seeped into work life as well. If it hadn't, it would hardly be fair.
Next, people have to interact with the world around them. They need to have ideas and be aware of what is happening elsewhere.
While they may appear to be surfing aimlessly, employees might well be picking up valuable information. They may be looking up old school friends on Facebook, or making contacts that will be useful for work.
And who knows, that fat boy you used to flick pellets at in school could turn out to be a great customer if only you could track him down.
Lastly, there's the double standard. The same companies that prevent their staff from surfing are quite happy to make money from other people's employees doing precisely that. Aren't they spending fortunes on web advertising? Who do they think is clicking on those ads and where? Aren't they all selling their products on the web, to people surfing in offices?
If a bank spends millions on a website for its customers, it has to assume many of them will be using it in the office. It can't complain if some of their workers sort out their car insurance at their desks.
The reality is that you can no more hope to control people using the web than you can control them using the office phone to ring their mother, or asking the secretary to buy their children a present.
Overall, the internet has made everyone more productive. It has certainly meant they are always chained to the office. To complain about people using the internet at work is just mean-spirited.
Now, having got that off my chest, I can go back to booking a hotel room and checking out those golf clubs.
* Matthew Lynn is a Bloomberg News columnist.
