Web socialising at work reduces output
Posted: July 27th, 2009 | Author: Richard | Filed under: Internet, Internet Restriction, Web Monitoring | Tags: Block websites, Control, Internet, Internet Restriction, Social Networking, Web Monitoring | 4 Comments »
Facebook at work amounts to social “not-working”, according to a new survey that shows employee productivity is hit by people socialising on the internet during office hours.
A new study by Boston IT advisory firm, Nucleus Research found that, companies that allow users to access Facebook in the workplace lose an average 1.5% in total worker productivity.
Nearly half of employees in the recent social net-working study use Facebook during work hours some as much as two hours per day. The average worker uses it for 15 minutes a day, and most couldn’t come up with a legitimate “business reason” for logging on.
The survey of 237 employees also showed that 77% of workers who have a Facebook account use it during work hours. And “some” employees use the social networking site as much as two hours a day at work, the study found.
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I prefer to let people browse the internet during work time. As long as they perform I don’t mind if they spend a couple of minutes a day on facebook.
I work in HR and there is definitely a line which needs to be drawn. Some employees with internet access are happier but others will make a mockery of the process.
Either the study is limited, or the report is limited. Just because a fraction of one’s time is put into browsing a social networking site doesn’t mean that their productivity is going down. I’m sure in situations where Facebookis blocked, fifteen minutes of a worker’s time will go into non-work related things that are not Facebook. It’s unrealistic to think that people don’t want to employ the internet for personal enjoyment during their work day when they’re forced to stare at a screen for 8 hours a day. Yes, some people will abuse the system, but those people probably lack gumption to begin with and ya might as well cut the fat.
The study was probably created to fulfil an agenda and the results would reflect that so the chances are that it is flawed, but just because some people lack gumption doesn’t mean you should give them the boot! People definitely should be able to access Facebook at work because everyone works such long hours and deserves to be able to organise their lives. Some do take the mickey though so there need to be processes in place to make sure everyones reasonable about it.