Another thing you can do is see if they'll allow you to run a VNC program to your home computer (to look up ... make up something that pertains to work). Then you can leave your computer turned on at home and access IRC or anything else that your home computer can access from your office - and it doesn't expose your office to any viruses, Trojans, etc.
I use UltraVNC (from the sourceforge site) - it works and it's free. And it doesn't require any open ports on your work computer, only on your home computer.
