Comments on: Breaking news: Facebook wastes employees’ time

By: Dee

Dee — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:21:58 +0000

I work in state government. Our firewall blocks everything – Facebook, Myspace, Yahoo, Hotmail… I check those from the library at lunch or after work a couple of days a week. As for employees pulling out their iphones at work – we are not allowed personal cell phones inside the building. So, is there any reason we need a policy that forbids visiting these sites?

By: JAnderson

JAnderson — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:40:31 +0000

How do you know when employees are on social network sites? Monitoring computers? IT birddogs usage? You walk by and “catch” them? If an employee isn’t getting his/her work done, how do you know it’s because of social networking?

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:38:08 +0000

It sounds like connie is under the delusion that employees act and think the same at work as they do at home. Or that they would talk as openly at work as they would in a completly different setting.

You bet connie – set an employee down in a chair on the other side of your desk and get a discussion that is truly free from any influence of the work place.

I never said that I would prefer that be the only means of communication – but an additional avenue that could remove the chains of influence from the work place.

Connie – you might want to step out of that dream world (and technology empty at that) and into reality. Please realize that tomorrow’s work force will be the poeple that made Facebook, MySpace etc. . . into the billion dollar industry that they are. So they will be even less comfortable with face to face interaction than today’s workforce.

By: connie

connie — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:19:16 +0000

It sounds like Ed wants access to Facebook. How did he deal with his employees before Facebook?
I personally like to actually talk and listen to my employees. If you don’t get the truth from them in all matters, then I guess you don’t have a good rapport with them.

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:12:39 +0000

Carla –

You should very well know that asking an employee face to face in the work place will elicit a very different response than she will get popping in and out of Facebook chats. Also, Facebook can be used from home which allows more work to get done at work – rather than asking about an employees children or what they did on the weekend.

By: Carla

Carla — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:25:50 +0000

I disagree with Valerie’s point as a busness owner she uses Facebook to get toknow her employees better. Rather than surf Facebook to find out, you wuld get a more information and greater impact by asking them yourself. Too much time for Twitter, Facebook etc and not enough time in meaningful exchanges.

By: Jim Holloway

Jim Holloway — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:11:14 +0000

It is ironic that this is a bulliten-board and so considered “social networking”. I have to say I have not once seen the number of responses poseted as to this question. As the IT manager at my firm but someone who rose from the ranks of productin to the world of “managment” I see this issue from both sides. Policy says “no” but who listens to policy, right?
When I started as MIS 16 years ago my boss was amazed that Windows was sold with GAMES on it and demanded they all be removed. I refused and explained that they were like a smoke-break for the eyes; people would stop, play a hand, and resume work never leaving their desks. With FB (which somehow fails to get blocked by my auto-filter) they leave it up all day in the background. IM-ing and updateing throughout the day. The trend is sloping towards this becoming a business tool for HR, Marketing of businesses, posting individuals’ resumes. As markets get tighter, we are all looking for some new edge. This tool has two and cuts both ways.

By: gavinzdad

gavinzdad — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:35:54 +0000

I check my Facebook periodically throughout the day. I connected with a friend 2 weeks ago that I haven’t seen or heard from in over 15 years. She happens to be the CFO at a major hospital in my state now. We signed them up as a new client last Friday, bringing in about $90,000 in new revenue per year over a 7 year agreement. I helped make the company $630,000 through Facebook.
My boss now makes sure I check my FB each day.

By: ML

ML — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:41:08 +0000

I tell you what…it takes me a LOT longer to check it on my phone than it does the website itself, so my company has actually lost MORE productive work time because I still check it…just not on their computer! Before I would spend maybe 10-15 minutes a day on it, now it’s probably 20-30 minutes because of the loading time on my phone browser.

By: Sonja

Sonja — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:59:39 +0000

Interesting replies…. I do not believe the 1.5% of time spent on social networking sites… I believe the time spent is much greater than that. We, too had employees that built their personal sites and even personal side jobs sites while at work. We also blocked the use of social networking sites through our IT department for a while. Now, I am seeing that many employees even if they are not in sales are using the sites again for “networking purposes”. I am even getting invitations to join their network during business hours.
Our labor expenses last year were almost 1 million $$$$. I would love to be able to use the small percentage of 1.5% to increase our health insurance contribution or add it to the bottom line.