The thing to bear in mind regarding Internet and email access granted to an employee by an employer is that it is granted to them solely so the employee can do their job. It that employee is allowed or tolerated using it for any other purpose is down to discretion of the employer.
From the employers perspective, the majority of them seem to be content to allow use of the companies infrastructure provided there is no impact on the operation of the business. This attitude may be borne out of the fact that until fairly recently content blocking was an immature technology.
However, unrestricted access to Internet services by employees carries a risk to the business and it's one that businesses are becoming much more aware of. With breaches ranging from passing company secrets through to running unauthorised servers distributing illegal software, the potential for reputation loss, financial damage and legal action are real risks that are important to the Board. In using technical means to circumvent monitoring or control systems designed to mitigate those risks to the company, an employee is committing a breach of good conduct that would be addressed as if it was any other sort misconduct.
In the future I'd expect to see much more in the way of control, locking access right down because it drives support costs right down as well as reducing risks to the business.