My job profile requires me to stay online for long hours. Let me also add that it's no fun! How can the Internet be any fun if you can't chat, email friends or surf interesting sites? Though my colleagues and I do it on the sly, there is the ever-looming danger of our boss catching us off guard. And what happens to us after that is too painful for me to quote.

What I really need are sites that will help me have my cake and eat it too. Preferably, sites powered with software that will help me avoid my boss's watchful eye. "You should be working," is his favourite phrase. He uses it a zillion times through the day, making me wonder, at times, whether he really practices what he preaches.

Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand, there's help online if you want to chill out and still show the world (your boss in particular) how industrious you are.

I Should Be Working is dedicated to people like me -- goof-offs, procrastinators, loafers, long lunchers, and web-addicted employees. It features a big list of links to online contests (make millions while you pretend to work!), jokes, useless pages (more useful than office files), entertainment (for the movie freaks), office humour and -- the most interesting -- romance.

In case you've been caught slacking too many times or simply can't do enough loafing at your current job, ISBW also has a job search. Well, not really. The search page is actually a safety device if your boss comes too close. Simply click the panic button and the site will take you to its innocuous-looking search page.

Don't know about you, but I've always felt the need to have longer coffee breaks. If you agree with me on a nine to five coffee break, 9to5Café is the place to be. Play golf, go snowboarding, read comics or simply take a look at funny snaps. My favourite section is one on stress relieving (fooling your boss is quite stressful), with a game called 'Punch Your Boss.'

After bashing your boss black and blue, virtually, of course, rejuvenate yourself in the mood room for another round of boxing. Another panic button here takes you to an essay on improving productivity at the workplace.

If 'hearing is believing,' you can sound busy with some exclusive 'hard-at-work' sound effects from Don's Boss Page. This audio-enhanced site produces sounds of typewriters, keyboards clicking and phones ringing, while you can catch-up on a couple of winks.

It also has a 'Personal Protector', a handy tool that let's you surf the web with a panic button always by your side. Just click and launch the fake spreadsheet screen! Also learn the ropes of stealth surfing. To further avoid your chances of being caught, the site shows up as 'Spreadsheet_20' in the task bar. Neat? You bet.

If you've read all I've said so far, you're a sworn procrastinator. Enrol yourself as a member of the Society of Creative Procrastination, an international organisation that believes in slacking being helpful at workplaces. We are not alone.

I believe that all work and no play makes me a dull girl. Moreover, haven't you heard that the best work in the world is done by people whose bosses don't know what they are doing?

-- ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

P45
Entertaining site for disgruntled office workers with the slogan 'wasting time @ work.'
Features crosswords, a boss alert, games, handy tips, horoscopes, and lots more.

Useless
Offers tips on how to use office supplies for fun.

Also Read

--Yours anonymously
--All out for no boss
--For Laughs: Ten sites to reduce your productivity