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I keep hearing of more and more people telling me their companies have locked them out of facebook. A decision made by management who are angry that their staff are using company time to waste otherwise productive hours.

Surely if employees want to skive off, they will one way or another, whether it be on facebook or planning their next summer holiday online?

By companies dictating and taking the distraction away, they are putting employees backs up - not a good move when you want to motivate your staff to drive towards your business goals.

Even more extreme, a friend was telling me that not only is facebook banned but her IT department track ALL staff internet usage. 'Internet can only be used for social use during your one hour lunch break'. Very big brother. Surely the combination of financing an IT department to check up on people, combined with the negative feeling towards the organisation are likely to be more of a cost to the business than employees taking time out to add the odd wall post on facebook?

It is also worth noting that those staff who want to achieve, work hard and be rewarded will do so whether they use social networking at work or not. With a good reward and recognition programme any performance issues should come out in the wash anyway.

Posted by Clare on 12 Feb 08, at 12:00 am

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