Banning Facebook At Work Is Like Banning The Telephone
from the it's-a-communications-tool dept
Earlier this year, we pointed out that it was silly for companies to block Facebook at work, because it's merely a communications tool. It can be misused, but that would show up in the performance of the employee. Instead, embracing Facebook and recognizing that it's just a communications platform -- like the telephone or like email (both of which some companies wanted to ban when they first became popular), it can be a very valuable tool.It's good to see a new study agreeing on that point and encouraging management execs to learn how to embrace social networking, rather than ban it completely:
They are part of the way in which people communicate which they find intuitive. Banning Facebook and the like goes against the grain of how people want to interact. Often people are friends with colleagues through these networks and it is how some develop their relationships.... Allowing workers to have more freedom and flexibility might seem counter-intuitive, but it appears to create businesses more capable of maintaining stability."Now, of course, some people are going to show up here and start commenting about how much time they (or others they know) waste on Facebook during the workday. However, as we said, it's no secret that some people abuse access to those systems -- but the focus should be punishing for the abuse, not punishing everyone and throwing out the good with the bad. Others will (as they always do) say something along the lines of "if you're at work, you should be working -- using a social network should never ever be allowed." Again, similar things were said originally about the telephone and email, and those have turned out to be very productive tools. Letting people communicate in the way they find most efficient and effective is a huge part of making sure a business is functioning well -- even if it includes letting employees spend some time on Facebook.
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Filed Under: social networks, work
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Give me a break
Letting people slack off in the most efficient way is really going to be beneficial to the company. "Hold on Dr. Jim, I'll prep the patient for surgery right after I post about my friends new picture."
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Re: Give me a break
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Re: Give me a break
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Sarah Palin Remixed
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=fRNNPDnuIxU
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Banking
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Re: Banking
Find a way in which it's useful instead of shooting it down outright. Nobody is trying to do it, so nobody has an understanding of how it could work...given the chance.
Don't see the glass as half-full.
Besides, what's to keep you from using the telephone to dial up your best friend to talk about how Lost sucks and has since the 2nd season?
You don't have the easy answer. You have the lazy answer.
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Like is not the same
There might be use in creating accounts associated with each position within a company, and having that account inherited when replacing an employee. But beyond that I don't see what benefit would come of using a work account for facebook. It doesn't really have any abilities above and beyond those of email, and to expose coporate communication to the realm of facebook privacy concerns would be careless to say the least.
If there were some benefit to using facebook at work, I might agree with you on this argument, but those benefits haven't presented themselves as of yet.
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Re: Like is not the same
The Hawthorne studies were a lie, and easily disproved. Now get back to work!
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As for the potential for abuse? Everyone spends some company time on non work-related activity; slipping outside for a smoke, calling a friend to invite them to go out for a beer, reading a magazine while they wait for a call or a hundred other things. And unless it starts to negatively impact on their performance, no big deal. Treating your employees like children is going to hurt productivity a lot worse than someone taking a few minutes to check their inbox or spend the last half hour of their day playing Freecell.
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Re:
Bob from accounting is such a joker.
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Re:
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Facebook?
Can I use this too at work?
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Re: Facebook?
Way to prove your point by giving three reasons why it WOULD be okay to bring a 360 to work.
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just do your job
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Re: just do your job
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Re: just do your job
Not a whole lot of "personal time" to accomplish anything.
The company prohibits the use of personal email, social networking sites, etc. I really don't need to use "YouTube" while at work, but it would be nice to be able to use Facebook or my own email during the work week.
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Depends
some times i find myself with little to nothing to do. so i just stare at the screen?
i figure as long as it doesn't interfere with your job
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Perfect Mission Statement
Putting clients first by putting employees first, immediately after prioritizing fiscal responsibility and leveraging profitability toward exceeding by empowering our employees to put clients (and themselves) first, in a diverse and respectful environment of only those that come first, first.
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Lost productivity
I figure it's a bad thing to treat these people as objects to be bought
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Well...maybe.
If managed properly by a business, Facebook could be a decent tool, though I suspect other social networking sites will better suited to a business purpose will be better tools.
But extolling Facebook as a communications medium on the level of the telephone and email takes it too far and gives too much credit to a site that is not really intended for that purpose. Messaging, chat, and writing on someone's wall simply layer over existing technology that is much more efficient for business communications.
I have Facebook open most of the time at work, and while I have many colleagues from both within and outside my organization as "friends," we nearly never use it as a medium for business communication. And frankly, I don't see Facebook developing in that direction in any significant way as other sites, such as LinkedIn are more focused on the business aspect of networking and companies--especially larger ones--who want to leverage the technology will (as the study cited points out) likely develop their own networking systems that can be more tightly focused to the tasks at hand.
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happy employees are productive employees
if i'm happy and my happiness is perhaps posting a few times on facebook throughout the day; then let me if i'm doing my job.
good morale = productiviy, a sense of worth.
the 'your at work, you should be working people' are prob the ones that abuse this type of thing anyways.
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re: Banning Facebook
It is not that I underwrite corporate America being a proverbial police state, but unless you are a marketing company/department I see no reason to take a stance of banning it should employees become irresponsible.
We do not forbid it at work, as we do take a stance that limited personal use of company resources is actually good business - and this goes both ways, because many take personal time to do extra work.
So companies focused upon staffing with high-capacity and productivity driven individuals has no need to worry, in my humble opinion. However, I would simply assert it should be viewed as a fringe benefit, not a right...
Regards,
Ken
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Ethics in the workplace
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Re: Ethics in the workplace
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Consider this
How many people put up pictures of their family in their workspace? How many co-workers stop by and comment on those pictures? How many workplace conversations revolove around "Did you see the game last night?" or "How was your weekend?" or "Who do you think will get voted off Survivor tonight?".
Let's face it, these things happen all the time. What Facebook offers is already taking place with or without a computer. Facebook is a social networking site. Guess what, so is the average office. Facebook just offers a different medium in which employees may conduct their networking.
Can it be abused? Or course, so can the phone, email, copy machine, supply cabinet, lunch breaks, you name it. Facebook is not going to suddenly corrupt good employees. If an employee is going to abuse their privlidges at work, they're going to do it with or without Facebook.
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Re: Consider this
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Re: Consider this
Ha ha! Starting today, work shall no longer infringe on home or personal activities!
Signed,
The jerk next to you responding to an email on my blackberry while in traffic.
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Facebook Etc.
Now a days with businesses doing whatever they can to keep workers and can't hire enough people, the last thing they should be doing is taking stuff away from them.
As for the bandwidth comment - that's a the biggest myth of all time and I laugh whenever I hear it.
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Security ramifications
We are looking into providing internet connected computers that do not share the company network in a public space where employees may use these kind of sites on lunch and breaks, but right now that is on hold till after the first of the year.
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Re: Security ramifications
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Re: Security ramifications
Can you point me to a link where this has happened, where someone has posted Confidential Information to Facebook or My Space? Or is this "Don't drive a car, you might get into an accident" kind of thinking?
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fed agency says no to facebook
Absolutely bizarre. You frame it well - facebook and blogs are modern address books.fed agencies are civil service agencies there to serve the american public. Social networks provide vital information the facilitate the interaction. Much like an address book, these service provide greater opportunity for interaction - the following of issues of concern - and discovering who petitioner are and the depths of petitioners concerns. To learn more about a person. Where they are coming from, the context of there concern is tremendous for democracy.
But this administration has stalled out egovt in the name of fear, er, I mean security. Maybe one day soon we will have leadershing that changes the way govt opperates, embracing these services as a means to egovt and civil service.
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communicating with the community
Facebook is where they already are, so engage them there. Don't make them come to your corp website to get answers and resources, proactively engage them on their turf - Facebook.
Tough to do that if you have to do it from home when you'd rather be posting your kids' Halloween photos.
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You guys must all have pushy jobs.
If we're not producing, the machines could get clogged and have to shut down for 10 hours.
We don't have desks, just shared terminals for checking production data.
Oh, sorry, you are all "knowledge" workers.
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Get the facts straight
(And yes, I do have a facebook account, but use it at HOME, and don't list my job.)
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Banned more than just Facebook!
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What cowards
Btw, we do have allow groups for Facebook/Myspace, but they are restricted to HR, PR, and Marketing to track people talking about our company to management execs only. All their activity is logged and tracked against a central proxy. This keeps it in check.
Opening it up wide in the past has created HR and PR incidents which have effected potential clients for sales. Its all about the few bad apples that f-it up for everyone else. Its always easier to block then allow, especially when it messes with your sales flow.
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Be realistic
Slackers aren't really a problem as they're easy to spot, regardless of Facebook or whatever website is or isn't banned.
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abuse?
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Manymoon.com
Manymoon allows you to manage your connections and the information you share with them.
Simplify your worklife with www.manymoon.com
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Getting work done despite the stupid bans
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Re: 10 Alternatives to Banning Facebook at Work
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To Block or Not...
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Employers neglect their ethical responsibilities on facebook
Facebook has no way to protect a persons character in the case of company pages.
I think that facebook should come up with a way to handle employee allowing defamation of character and other kinds of employer abuse on their website the truth is that the employee wont be able to respond to the comment and there name being on a site belonging to the place they work can destroy them put them in danger and cause many other problems for the person and if he/she asks the administration to remove the comment then what. Maybe places like hospitals and social work fields just shouldn't have a facebook pages because there is always going to be at least one sour apple who isn't happy with the service they recieved. But the really question is how does someone fight something like this if it happens to them?
here is one I know of:
http://www.facebook.com/nychhc
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