Comments on: More employers blocking Facebook: Should you?

By: margaret

margaret — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:37:10 +0000

Related to access of Facebook, social networking sites, I have reservations about our recruiters using these sites as a supplement to finding contact information. I’m concerned that the information gathered may legally place us in jeopardy because these sites contain information, available to most, that is personal such as religious affiliation, memberships to particular organizations, etc.
This has led to a “block”/request to our recruiters not to utilize these sites.

By: Essie

Essie — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:00:10 +0000

The list of websites that our parent company has blocked is HUGE. I’m the editor of our member newsletter, and I can’t even get on sites to locate a Wine or Seasonal Cocktail of the Month!

By: Ken

Ken — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:35:02 +0000

The supervisor/manager mindset is if it doesn’t interfere with productivity then there is no cause for alarm. We have had an employee or 2 who were on these type of sites for most of the day and not getting their work done and hence they were blocked from using the site until they got the idea to keep up on work. Also, in terms of blocking harmless websites from the users, they will only find something else to do to kill the time. With sites such as facebook and myspace, at least they are still at their computer and available to get their work done if something is called for. As far as the virus issue is concerned, the people who have gotten viruses on their computers were browsing/searching and went to less established/known websites. Looking at the log on your virus scan should show you where the virus originated from.

By: Tashana

Tashana — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:30:53 +0000

Same here Stu. My organization advocates use of these sites as well – so much so that we have an organization FB page for all three of our host companies. Because the nature of our business is sales and creativity, these social networking sites are almost a new revenue stream. We are able to reach students, professors and the like. I like Ulm’s approach as well. To date we seem to do pretty well with limiting what can be downloaded, as only a select group of employees have access to download anything on their computers.

By: Stu

Stu — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:49:53 +0000

I like ulm’s approach to this problem. We are advocating the use of Twitter and Facebook as positive marketing tools for our company and our clients. It is a wonderful marketing tool if used properly and you can’t beat the price.

By: ulm

ulm — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:39:03 +0000

Given all of the studies regarding employee productivity and general disdain for blocked sites, we do not block access to social networking sites, youtube, google video, etc. We do however block access to most IM apps, proxy sites, P2P, file delivery sites, and streaming music services. And maintain a very good IDS and AV setup throughout our networks.

By: karen

karen — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:10:05 +0000

yes, we block our computers from getting to those sites. We kept getting viruses on our computers from our employees who visited these sites!

By: Anca

Anca — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:26:24 +0000

With the increasing number of data leaks situations, companies should closely monitor their employees computer activity.