On Corporate IT Policies

So we got an official employee communication today telling us not to download or have non-business related mp3 files on our PCs. Apparently this is a violation of some corporate policy and takes up valuable disk storage space on our desktop boxes that have 20-30 gig hard drives. While I'm okay with this policy due to the legal implications of employees potentially having "stolen" music they've downloaded and not paid for, the fact that this policy is overbroad and includes video and high resolution digital images bothers me.

Now, I don't know about you, but given my age and technical preferences, I'm more likely to have a picture of my wife, family, pets, and friends electronically than tacked up somewhere in my cube (I reserve my wall space for appropriate comics). I use these pictures as screen savers, and to show my co-workers who might be interested in my personal life. I also use these pictures as motivations to keep putting up with all the standard corporate BS everyone puts up with and when it gets really tense I pull up a picture of my wife or hungry dogs to remind me why getting a paycheck is really important.

I guess having motivation to come to work and do a good job isn't important and merely being a corporate minion is okay. Going forward I guess I'll use what little imagination I have left to try to convince myself to do a good job, but I suspect it will fade out one day and I can become like the thousands of other workers in this country who merely go to work every day for a paycheck and don't care about the quality of work they produce.