STRICTLY BUSINESS: BARBER HAS NEW APPROACH: HAVE SHEARS, WILL TRAVEL

Have shears, will travel.

Matthew Edward Prince of Cape Girardeau may be the only Southeast Missouri barber who makes house, or office, calls.

A third-generation barber, Prince offers his customers a quality haircut, good hair advice and a chat while they sit at their office desk or chair at home.

He said he decided to offer an "in-your-office service" because in today's busy society, people are logging in more work hours than ever.

"It's a busy business world," said Prince. "So I decided to take my business on the road."

"And it gives me time to handle another job," he said.

Prince comes from a family of barbers. His grandfather operated a barber shop several years, and three uncles were barbers.

Graduating from the Missouri School of Barbering in St. Louis two years ago, Prince worked in a Cape Girardeau barber shop for a while. He has continued to cut hair, but works full time at Jackson Door and Windows.

"This mean I will be providing my traveling barber services from about 4 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday.

Prince credits President Clinton's schedule for giving him the idea to be a traveling barber.

Recalling an incident several years ago the president's impromptu haircut aboard Air Force One Prince said it occurred to him that if the president could get someone to come to him, "that other people might want a barber to come to them."

Apparently they do. Prince has received a number of calls for appointments. So Prince packs up his portable cutting tools, hair products and cleanup equipment and heads to his clients' home or office.

Prince will travel within the Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Scott City area.

The procedure lasts about as long as a typical salon appointment.

In some cases, the client can even continue to conduct business.

Clients may call pager number 277-9219 for appointments. Prince's wife, Kristy, will return the call and make the appointment.

"We'll do a haircut in a person's office, break room or wherever, said Prince. "I carry cleanup materials, including a vacuum."

Goofing off or using a perk?

Do you surf the Internet?

At home?

At work?

On breaks at work?

Up to 25 percent of American workers are playing Internet games during their work breaks.

According to recent surveys by a number of groups, some folks play online games to relieve job-induced stress.

Actually as many as 42 percent of employees surf the Web while on break, but they're not all playing games.

During one company's "Internet tracking," officials found workers listening to ball games, reviewing school class schedules, looking for tickets for various events, studying job listings, calling up stock prices and seeking romance.

Every day, tens of thousands of workers surf the Web on company time for personal business and pleasure.

From the file clerk to high-level executives, computer users are opening or secretly navigating in cyberspace.

Is this goofing off on the job? Or is it a job perk that is a welcome break from the daily grind at the office?

For some companies, it is a non-issue. Workers may go on Web for some non-business issues, but the instances are few and far between. But for some companies, it definitely is an issue.

Let's look at some statistics:

• U.S. companies and government agencies lose an estimated $50 billion a year in productivity because of employees playing computer games at the workplace.
• More than 50 percent of Fortune 500 companies have given employees Internet access. Internet abuse is clearly a growing corporate problem, according to Nielsen Media Research. Studies show that some employees average as much as 90 minutes a day fooling around with Internet sites that don't have anything to do with a company's business.

That's goofing off.

How bad is the problem? One study a couple of years ago found that 44 percent of the U.S. population plays games on computers. Twenty-three percent reported they had done so while at work.

Another survey indicated that the goofing off isn't confined to the clerical or cubicle-confined set. Middle management the people making between $40,000 and $50,000 a year played notably more games at work than any other income category.

The art of goofing off the office, to be sure, has a long and noble tradition. From hanging around the water cooler to hiding novels behind official-looking reports, employees have devised thousands of ways to appear busy when they either don't feel much like working or when there really isn't much to be done on a particular day.

Some companies are buying software programs to kill game or block certain Internet sites. Others have considered removing games from computers.