One day you are happily poking your friends, airing your feelings or thoughts on your status and being plugged into everyone’s latest news the next day you log in…gone! If like me I used Facebook as a break after completing a task at work and to catch up on the goings on of all in my network and then I would move on to the next thing I had to do.
Overnight management pulled the plug on Facebook without a word and left many a disgruntled face in the office. Performance Appraisals had just taken place and of course as always in life, just like back in high school, a few (the usual suspects) have abused the privilege and caused the entire group to bear the brunt of their actions.
Not Happy Jan!
But was this an effective move? I presume there is an argument on both sides of the coin, but in my mind a robust social media policy and line managers disciplining those that do abuse their access would be the best approach. Social Media is not going to go away and is only going to become more prevalent and increase as time goes on. As suspected this action has just pushed employees back to MSN Messenger and or got them dabbling on Twitter. If an employer chooses to ban these sites they may find their ability to attract a certain type of person or age bracket will be severely hampered down the track.
No communication was issued and HR not even consulted regarding the pre-emptive strike that occurred overnight so employees were left gossiping about why and what had happened. As published in an article in The Age back in April 2008 a
“Galaxy survey found many young workers saw banning access to Facebook at work as a betrayal of trust.” http://bit.ly/8p9w36
By not properly dealing with the offenders I believe that this action has sent out a message of distrust to employees and demonstrates short-sightedness in dealing with the issue at hand. The company’s disciplinary procedure should be coming into play and guidelines about what acceptable usage is should be clearly communicated.
Let me make is clear that I do not condone the behaviour of “Crackbooks” surfing Facebook for hours on the job when they should be working as they are employed to do, but an understanding by managers of what Facebook actually is about needs to happen with senior managers (a lot of them don’t even know what it really is) and there are alternatives to bans, such as communal access in lunchtime or break out rooms and also restricted access such as timed access between 12pm and 2pm on all PC’s.
Facebook is no different to other forms of time-wasting in the workplace, it used to be smoko breaks and people taking to long to have their ciggies, then it was too much talking at the water cooler or photocopier, then personal emails at work, surfing the net at work and now it is social media sites. People feel the need to socialise it is part of our intrinsic being and as the way we make and build relationships continues to change into many forms this will only become more prevalent. Employers would be wiser to board the Web 2.0 Train and discover ways to use this technology to engage with their employees and customers alike.
