I am the same way, Nat, but had never thought of the mirror idea until you mentioned it (THANKS!!). My biggest pet peeve is being startled. It actually makes me mad! That and it takes approximately ten years for my heart to return to its normal rhythm after a good scare.
When I worked as a business manager I had to keep my monitor positioned appropriately due to the sensitive nature of the financials I worked on. Now that I am in higher education and have much more down time in my job, I can float back and forth between work related tasks and internet perusing. I also have two monitors so it's much easier to do just that. Out of habit I used to keep them turned so I could face the entrance to my cube, but like you mentioned...it gave me killer neck/back aches.
My feeling is that if you are gonna spend time on the internet while at work, just be open about it. Minimizing your screen or acting all paranoid just pisses people off. If someone has an issue with it, chances are you'll hear about it eventually. Your coworker is drawing more attention to the fact that she is most likely doing something she knows she shouldn't be.
Keep the mirror. It's your space and as long as you aren't violating some sort of company policy then you have every right to feel safe/make your space safe.
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