Should I access Internet at Office for Personal Work?

A very basic question but recently I have been asked this question by many a Gen Y clients and acquaintance. My answer is clear on this one– look up your office policies, ask HR if you cannot find any relevant ones on your intranet and follow them. If the company is against personal usage of internet while at work just avoid it. Even if you are using your own device, but using the company Wi-Fi it will be received on your company’s monitoring services.

Then what to do if you have to be on a chat or have other personal stuff to look up, here are some solutions:

• You can go to a local Starbucks/coffee shop/ or other stores or areas with Wi-fi network with your personal laptop or device and work from there during your lunch break.
• Setup a remote desktop access, eHow website shows you how.

Definitely not advisable to try to hack your office monitoring system  or working around to bypass the internet surveillance at your workplace, your employer pays you to be on the job not on your personal interests.

What would you do? Please comment.