June 28, 2009

When current events lead to an impromptu personal day

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Admit it. Even if you didn't like Michael Jackson's music and dance moves, you and your coworkers huddled around one computer for hours, reading about the 911 call, watching him moonwalk on YouTube, and sharing your own thoughts on Facebook about the week's celebrity deaths.

Okay, so maybe you weren't one of the millions affected worldwide by MJ's unexpected passing. Or Farrah's tragic end. Maybe it was the recent post-election protests in Iran that captivated you and led you to spend an afternoon following the news reports on Twitter, turning your social networking avatars green, and sending out social media dispatches of the horrific police and paramilitary violence against protesters to your online friends and followers.

Point is, no matter what we're moved by -- the passing of a pop icon, the political unrest of a nation, the swearing in of a new U.S. president -- we've all experienced lost chunks of the workday when, instead of doing what our employer pays us to do, we remain glued to the computer, soaking in the shocking or historic news, sharing links and running commentary with our face-to-face colleagues and Web community of choice.

Readers, if you've ever been moved by current events to throw all pretense of working out the window for a few hours, I'd love to hear how you did it. Did your boss get in on the act, or did you and your officemates have to keep your Web surfing, linking, and commenting on the down low?

Michelle Goodman is the author of "My So-Called Freelance Life" and "The Anti 9-to-5 Guide." E-mail Michelle at mgoodman@nwjobs.com

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