Block Social Media in the Workplace - yes or no?

[Mousee]

As you may know many companies started blocking social networking sites from using at work. I think this will never work. If people have low motivation to work they will find other variants how to waste time at the working place - talking, phone calls, reading and so on. Such restrictions can only decrease the productivity.

I found an interesting article that describes some benefits for companies from USING social sites:

# It helps morale. Everyone needs a mental break from work, and browsing Facebook or sending out a few tweets is no different than surfing the web, reading your email or checking voice messages in terms of time consumed. If you ban social sites, your employees are still going to figure out a way to procrastinate a little bit using the Internet or by taking 20 coffee breaks. Let your employees have a little freedom to stretch their legs and enjoy a little personal time at work ? it?ll likely make them happier and more willing to tackle their tasks.
# It builds knowledge of social media. What better way to build up awareness of the value of social media marketing by encouraging hands-on experience? If you ban social media usage at work but appoint some random person in marketing to handle the company?s social media efforts, you could be missing out on the knowledge that other employees can bring to the table. Maybe there?s someone at the office who is really passionate about social networking and knows enough about the subject to bring value to the company. You shouldn?t stifle these people; rather, you should encourage their usage of various sites and networks and maybe even ask for updates on what they?ve learned about existing sites, new sites, etc.
# It can help solve work problems/answer questions by reaching out to large networks. If there?s a work-related question that needs to be answered, it can potentially be resolved by reaching out via a social network like Twitter or LinkedIn. Whenever I?m stumped on an SEO question, I?ve sometimes tweeted the problem and gotten a great slew of helpful answers from my community of followers. Social networks can oftentimes be a great problem-solving tool.
# It can be great marketing for the company. Businesses would probably love for their happy employees to share how great it is to work at Company X ? it?s great branding for them and can serve as positive reputation management. I tweet all the time about how I love working for 10e20 and how I have the best coworkers in the world ? that?s great for our company and great for business.
From Why Companies Shouldn?t Block Social Media in the Workplace | 10e20

What's your opinion on the topic?

 

[loenex]

I guess there is no need in blocking social networking sites at the workplace. Maybe it needs some restrictions or schedule on the time the users can access on these social networking sites. For example, they can access networking sites during their break time.

 

[bigcat1967]

It helps morale. Everyone needs a mental break from work...

We have FB and Twitter blocked by websense at work. I agree with it - there's plenty of other sites out there that I can get on and take a mental break. I'm a news junkie and I hit CNN & Fox on a daily basis at work. For me - that's a mental break.

 

[Ace2110]

It doesn't make sense to me and I'd never take that step as an employer. There are many other ways to keep track of employee production and they are clearly less intrusive. Plus, I think there is an element of trust and good-will that can be forged through social networks. Why not use them to build a community at your workforce instead of banning them?

 

[Slips715]

I think that it's important to stay in the loop on facebook and twitter, but its way too distracting. Also, if your employees are on facebook and twitter, it could help promote your business. There are some good arguments to keep it, but at the end of the day, I think you should leave social networking outside the office.

 

[harrysmith]

If you trust your employee then there's no reason for blocking any such social sites. I am sure they will be more productive if you give them more freedom and frequently cross-check their achievements.

 

[amelia20]

It doesn't make sense to me and I'd never take that step as an employer. There are many other ways to keep track of employee production and they are clearly less intrusive. Plus, I think there is an element of trust and good-will that can be forged through social networks. Why not use them to build a community at your workforce instead of banning them?

Well said! I completely agree with you! I personally think by blocking such sites you won't expect to get a big change in your work! If your office employees follow work rules and they work dedicatedly for you then watching facebook or twitter for some times would never make problem for you! Also twitter, facebook are great sites and if you effectively use them they can be worthwhile for your business! So we need to be positive minded and never block them.

 

[djbaxter]

The issue usually has more to do with security concerns than worries about productivity. If productivity were the major issue, most organizations could block everything but the intranet.

Look at the security issues that have arisen for indicidual users over the past year alone: Google, Facebook, Twitter - all have been compromised. Now think about an porganization trying to protect customer and employee privacy and confidentiality, as well as trade secrets. For most of us, it's an annoyance. For many organizations it would be a catastrophic nightmare.

 

[vhoi]

well for me it's alright to let them use social media. Happy people= happy employees.

 

[djbaxter]

well for me it's alright to let them use social media. Happy people= happy employees.

Security breach = unhappy employer. Unhappy employer = ex-employees.

 

[janellelk]

I echo a lot of other peoples' sentiments on this thread.. I do not think it's an employer's place to outright ban social media networking sites. Furthermore, there is an incredibly growing trend of companies/businesses hopping onto Fb, Linkedin, Twitter, etcetera and creating a stronger brand identity and becoming more personal therefore more effective in their employees' lives.

 

[VictorEdson]

This is something that would have to be handled on a personal level.

Some people just text all freakin day, and they don't need to be checking they facebook every 5 minutes when they're at work.

If on a break or something, that's fine. But work is work.

People need rules, or they'll sit around on facebook sending text messages all day about...oh here comes my boss... anyway like I was saying before I was interupted....