If you're manager tracks your time based on when you log in and out of your machine at work, then are you missing out on pay for the time you're waiting for your machine to boot up and shut down? That's what a series of lawsuits by employees from the likes of AT&T, UnitedHealth and Cigna demand.

Add those minutes up over a week, and hourly employees are losing some serious pay, argues plaintiffs' lawyer Mark Thierman, a Las Vegas solo practitioner who has filed a handful of computer-booting lawsuits in recent years.

In other words, does the clock start when you show up at the office or when the computer first logs you into the company network? A lawyer representing the defence on one of the cases argues that the time is generally spent doing personal activities like taking a coffee break or going out for a smoke. Are you getting stiffed time at your desk waiting for your operating system to startup? Photo by Andy Melton

Workplace bans on Facebook and other social networking sites aren't uncommon -- just ask our Prime Minister But a new report on a roundtable held by the Future Exploration Network suggests that companies are slowly embracing the social networking concept and getting over access mania: It's good to read comments like these:

We don't try to control what people do or where they do it - we have a couple of filters for pornography and games sites. But we don't get reports on who's doing what.
What if I have one of my best performers spending an hour a day on Facebook - do I really want to stop them? If they are hitting their metrics is it really that bad?

Google asked productivity blogger Merlin Mann to visit their campus and share some insights into getting things done. His presentation covers several interesting aspects of time management and productivity including renegotiating your commitments, controlling who has access to your limited resources like time and output, and qualifying how your commit yourself to tasks to create a more sane work environment. The video is thirty five minutes and worth the watch for a solid set of productivity principles to help you start this week on the right foot.

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Chances are your workplace IT infrastructure has some restrictions in place, whether that's a basic filter to cut out objectionable sites or a full lock-down that stops you even changing your desktop colour scheme. But no matter what those rules -- or how much mistrust they breed -- there's some sure-fire ways to misuse technology that definitely fall into the CLM (career-limiting move) category. Here's five real-life examples that you should not emulate in your office. (Yep, dressing up as a clown and playing with a notebook might be the sixth. Photo: PR Newswire.)

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Social psychologists say that workplace envy—experienced by more than half of employees surveyed—reduces productivity because workers withhold information and collaborate less with co-workers. Commonly-held belief is that a little workplace competition actually spurs productivity, because you want to do as well or better than your office mate. Which is it?

We've highlighted the treadmill-plus-computer concept before, including how you can use it to burn 600 calories a day while typing. Now the New York Times highlights how the treadputer is helping out in the office: "It is tempting to become distracted during conference calls, but when [you are] exercising, [you listen] more intently."

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If office gremlins are making off with your daily meal, innovative designer Sherwood Forlee has a clever solution: the Anti-Theft Lunch Bag. Simply put, Anti-Theft Lunch Bags "are regular sandwich bags that have green splotches printed on both sides." With your sandwich inside, the bag simulates mold and makes the contents look disgusting. These bags aren't available for purchase, but the idea shouldn't be difficult to replicate if you need more sandwich security at your workplace. Thanks Patrix!

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The Asylum blog compiles some solid advice on how to call in sick, even if you don't meet the traditional definition of "sick"—take that how you will. One of the best bits of advice involves the timing of your sick day, as noted by the editor of the Save the Assistants blog:

Pick a random Tuesday or Wednesday for your fake illness. At a lot of companies, there are mysterious sick waves on the day after a long weekend or on a really beautiful day in the summer. You can get away with that once in a while, but if you only come down with the flu on really beautiful Friday afternoons in the summer, everyone will be on to you. Taking off a day in the middle of the week will also make it less likely that you have 400 emails to sort through all at once when you come back from your elongated holiday.

Valid point, and the others are worth keeping in mind also. Photo by Perfecto Insecto.

Over at PC World, I (Adam) have written up 12 sly tech tricks for beefing up your tech arsenal, from password cracking to inconspicuously reading on the job. Got a favourite trick of your own? Let's hear about it in the comments.

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Dysfunctional corporate behaviour expert Steve Tobak runs down three simple things that can make meetings at work suck less. Sadly for meeting attendees who often don't have a say in who's running the show, the meeting leader has a lot to do with it. Tobak writes that an effective meeting:

...is run by someone who is responsible for every aspect of the meeting including agenda, attendance, punctuality, and documentation. That person keeps everyone on topic and moves the meeting along.

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