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Estrella Jey

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Should the use of social neworks be banned at work?

Do you think that the use of social networks such as Facebook be banned at work?
I personally think that there is no harm using social networks at work as long as they are used in a responsible manner.

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  • chuck norris

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    Dec 21 2012: my friend, what each company wants is regular output. even if you had been ceo of a company then you also wanted that employes should not indulge in activities that hinder there progress. AND SOCIAL NETWORKS IS ONE OF THEM
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    Casey Christofaris 10+

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    Dec 18 2012: No what would people do?
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    Juliette Zahn 50+

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    Dec 11 2012: Yes.... and behind the wheel.

  • tomas jones

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    Dec 9 2012: As the poster mentioned, as long as you steal from your company in a responsible manner, it should be fine. I gotta admit, spending 5 hours a day twittering is sure better than work.
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    Robert Winner 50+

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    Dec 4 2012: Yes. I pay you for eight hours of work. You spend two hours a day on some site you have stole from me in terms of both time and money. Unless your job description call for the use of internet then it should not be available. I worked in the military, government, and state sites and there was classified info available and a cell phone was almost always restricted except for upper management. In manufacturing environment tools and machinery need attention to prevent accidents and distractions should be eliminated. The web was not available except to upper management in this case also.

    There is a reason that they are called social networks .... conduct your social life on your time.

    Some companies require you to devulge your sites as a condition of employment and they look at the comments sent and recieved and use that as a part of the interview.

    If for some reason you made comments about your company/job/employeer that was found to be "out of bounds" do you think that they should be able to fire you based on that? You are on their computer, their time, and you SHOULD know that they are monitoring your conversations. And yes they should have the right to mionitor what happens on their time and equipment.

    Even when allowed there is always someone who is smarter than everyone else and screws it up for the rest of us.

    So ... no they should not be allowed.

    Thanks. Bob.
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    Michel Desjardins 10+

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    Nov 30 2012: Social media is a form of communication and expression. Would you really chose to ban communication and expression?

    In our company (40,000 people), we encourage it! We even used an internal social media tool (Yammer) with great results. The CEO and senior leadership team is actively involved in it and it empower our employees to better serve our customers (we solved problems at very high speed using some form of crowd sourcing).

    Being cautious that abusing it (or anything) can have negative effects, but it's rather rare.
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    Gail . 50+

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    Nov 30 2012: If you have sold your time to a business (which is what a job really is), it is not fair to steal (your time) from your employer. You should give your employer fair value. Cheating your employer is not responsible behavior.

    If you want a job where you must use social networking to succeed, you should grow your network (on your own time) until it is so large and diverse that you can get a job in sales or marketing.
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    Faisel Butt

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    Nov 30 2012: I think social networks is increasingly becoming a natural part of our way of communicating. I think if you ask this question in the foreseeable future, it would be seen as equivalent to banning people from talking to their co-workers.

    When new technology is introduced you always see a certain group of people excessively indulging in it - and a certain group of people fearing that it will take over everything and they will try to restrict the use of it. I remember hearing the same arguments about mobile phones and texting.
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    Lejan . 30+

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    TED Translator
    Nov 30 2012: In my opinion social nework sites should be blocked during work hours and open during break times.

    Urgent private matters get communicated by phone anyway, so there is no necessity to be online in other private affairs.

    Another option could be a time scanning software, openly installed and mentioned, to track the time a user spends on private affairs and to withdraw it from the official working time account. This way the user has its freedom on its own expense and the 'responsible manner' becomes measurable, as a certain workload would still be expected to be done as well as an unshared availability.

  • George QT

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    Nov 30 2012: Remember you are hired to do certain task during a certain amount of time, if a manager often finds employees neglecting their job or working less time than they are paid for, then the company is in its right to ban social networks, cell phones or what ever source of distraction.
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    Jou Pabalate

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    Nov 29 2012: Social Networks go way beyond facebook and twitter both in terms of platform and function... I don't think a company should ban them but regulation is necessary to ensure that personal consumption is at a reasonable level...

    Besides, companies are increasingly reliant on these networks for branding, marketing, and engaging their consumers... recent studies have shown that having the presence of employees in the social media can help your business (providing they use it responsibly) hence the emergence of Social Media training for staff...

    As a recruiter, Social Networks are part of my job: as a recruitment, research and marketing tool... in fact, not being on it or knowing how to master the use of it is a big personal no-no.
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    Feyisayo Anjorin 50+

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    Nov 29 2012: There is time for everything. Imagine your favourite football player chatting on Facebook or updating his twitter status during a game; or a doctor doing the same during a surgery (these are not likely to happen).
    There is sufficient time for social networks during breaks and after work hours. Unless you are a marketer who uses the network for such I dont think social networks should be allowed on the company's computers.
    Banning may be an extreme way of handling it.
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