ReaperOfCode

Agreed realistically there will always things that limit your productive time, and that's normal, although management will try to push against that. The question is from a company policy point of view. E.g. new policy "Employees are allowed 3 smoke breaks a day , or they may use an e-sig at their desk."

the distinction between simply using an e-cigarette and "vaping" can be drawn by arbitrarily measuring the amount of smoke ? that complicates things a bit.

Please explain ? If you think about it, if someone goes away from their desk for 5mins (conservative estimate) 10 times a day (given not everyone goes that often) that is almost 10% of their day "wasted".

It's also relevant to more than just productivity, e.g. a receptionist leaving the phones unattended.

Sounds to me like things already work on mobile OS-es e.g. on android tapping a youtube linke can take you to the app to view instead of in the browser. Perhaps you could have the same kind of function on desktop OS-es shouldn't be too hard , all the apps just need to understand URLs. Could even go further than a lookup table for certain domains, and have different protocols etc.

"...before grating us any access..." *granting

I agree, I'm sending this to my bosses as soon as I finish reading it myself.

In my experience existing in the middle ground of being a manager of 3-5 resources and being expected to produce your own work with no managerial experience (only 6 years dev experience), added on that unrealistic client expectations has been the greatest challenge I have faced so far. To whomever finds themselves in a similar position I wish you the best of luck.