“It is quite remarkable that in this day and age, many employers are still putting their employees’ interests as a low priority by not allowing them to use sites like Facebook,” Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies said.

“Facebook is such a popular application that is so widely used for personal and business uses, it makes no business sense to ban it,” he added.

Is STW next!! Banned at my workplace so have to read on the mobile in the individual contemplation chambers (Gents Side)

Oh whell.

Happy employees are productive employees, it is that simple.

ha – we were lucky to get access to linkedin at work …

before I get stuck on the other side I’m amazed you can get to facebook from any work pc that is set up properly!!

Def not a work activity unless you are doing a work facebook site

molgrips – Member
Happy employees are productive employees, it is that simple.

Sounds terrifyingly, horribly, disgustingly familiar. Not good.

my place of work has a simple “be a div on facebook yer fired” policy.

If used in moderation there shouldn’t be a problem, some people can not moderate themselves and end up spoiling it for the rest.
And as you say a pointless ban as many people can access the internet through their smartphones.
Could you sugggest to your boss that Facebook could be a useful way of interacting with customers and that the company is missing an opportunity?

Happy employees are productive employees, it is that simple.

He’s right you know. If staff are taking the mick on Facebook (or here) then there are some serious motivational issues to address.

Our business uses it’s FB page more than the company website.

The thought of having to go to work and get paid to be productive rather than wasting time on FB 🙄

We’re a reasonably sized business, say 7,000 employees. As a result we have a dirty great internet pipe. It maxes out between about 11 am and 1pm.

What do you think constitutes the vast majority of that traffic?

Productive employees? Shirkers and layabouts more like. Get back to work!

before I get stuck on the other side I’m amazed you can get to facebook from any work pc that is set up properly!!

My work pc can access anything on the internet. Same for the other several thousand employees and also for all the other large employers I’ve worked for. They all seem to get along ok but I guess they try to employ people who aren’t slackers/porn addicts?

If you have a business of 7000 employees and your internet pipe “maxes out”, I don’t think you can describe is as “dirty great” by any stretch of the imagination…

I’m still amazed that some companies waste their time policing what sites people visit – it’s an overhead managing white lists etc and if the managers are not capable of managing people’s time, you need new managers.

Rachel

sorry but they’re there to work, not to piss about on facebook/youtube/STW. I’ve been guilty in the past of pissing about on STW when I should be working, had a “word in my ear” and don’t risk it now, so before anyone accuses me of hypocrisy, been there done that got the warning…

Lunchtime excepted, but if everybody starts hitting facebook or youtube or STW at the same time, it could (and probably would) have a detrimental effect on the speed of genuine (i.e. work-related) network traffic.

You could try the “treat em like adults & they’ll behave like adults” approach but frankly, for the addicted, it simply doesn’t work like that.

Do you work in a chinese sweat factory?

Facebook is a load of bollox anyway.

john_drummer – Member

sorry but they’re there to work, not to piss about on facebook/youtube/STW.

A lot of people will give better results in a more relaxed atmosphere. Personally, I get more done in 55 minutes with a 5 minute break to mess about than I do in an hour… It’s just a new equivalent of nipping out for a fag or a coffee, or having a chat about the holidays.

But of course it’s all a matter of degrees, if you had someone who went for a coffee for 2 hours a day you’d have the same words as you would with someone who went on facebook for 2 hours a day.

Some of our students have complained to the library that too many people use the open access computers for Facebook, denying them the opportunity to do some work on them.

I’m still amazed that some companies waste their time policing what sites people visit – it’s an overhead managing white lists etc and if the managers are not capable of managing people’s time, you need new managers.

Rachel

Rachel speaks a lot of sense here.

Give people the access and ask them to be responsible with it ie: in breaks only, or in your own time.
Penalties for those who aren’t responsible – down to individual line managers to manage it, same as people who come in late/.leave early/take excessive tea/fag breaks…
Some companies are still living in the dark ages and haven’t yet realised that if you treat employees well they’ll work harder and better…

If you have a business of 7000 employees and your internet pipe “maxes out”, I don’t think you can describe is as “dirty great” by any stretch of the imagination…

Perhaps he just meant that those were the times of maximum usage?

We don’t have FB usage because some people abused it. Don’t care, don’t use it. Downtime is important though, so we blow things up occasionally to give everyone a laugh 😉

The stance I took back when I was a sysadmin was that if you want to use the Internet occasionally for personal use then that’s fine so long as a) you don’t sit on there all day and b) you don’t go to any dodgy sites. Everything goes through a proxy server and can be reviewed if I’m asked to by a manager.

Basically, apply some common sense and don’t take the piss.

banned at my place, not a prolem really as we are there to work , not pissaround on facebook.

If I were a boss I’d ban it.

probably banned never tried

Ironically, it’s banned at our place and then our fb page is advertised on our home page and on the propaganda screens around the building.

So how would you feel if you had the builders round, you agreed to pay the £xx per hour no matter how much they get done. They rock up to work, do a bit, then They ask you for your wireless password, boot up the laptop spend a bit of time on Facebook, do a bit more bricks, bit more Facebook etc .

You then pay them the same as if they hadn’t been on Facebook for a couple of hours but a happy builder is a good on so I suppose it’s better. They do this everyday, sometimes you pop out to see how it’s going and 3 of the 5 builders are on Facebook and your extension is behind schedule.

How long before you ask them to stop?

If they don’t stop how long before you switch the wireless off?

How long before you fire them?

Oh, and you as thier employer has a Facebook page and they advertise on Facebook so surely they should be allowed to use it?

What’s Facebook? Is it like MySpace?

Coyote – Member

I’m still amazed that some companies waste their time policing what sites people visit – it’s an overhead managing white lists etc and if the managers are not capable of managing people’s time, you need new managers.
Rachel

Rachel speaks a lot of sense here.

No she doesn’t – there’s little or no management overhead or time wasted in setting up a web filter, you pay someone else to do it. I used to work for a company that made them, from a company’s point of view once the contract was signed we’d do all the dirty work.

(Personally I’m undecided as to whether a company should filter facebook / porn / STW or whatever, both sides of the argument have valid points.)

If we are busy pull your weight if we are quiet stretch your work – look busy .

When we are busy we are fooking mental and usually working in shite holes so no one grudges a bit of down time during quiet times so long as you are not shirking your work or producing crap work or letting someone else be busy busy.

I’m still amazed that some companies waste their managers time policing what sites people visit – it’s an IT issue managing white lists etc and if the IT Dept are not capable of blocking sites, you need a new IT Dept.

They do this everyday, sometimes you pop out to see how it’s going and 3 of the 5 builders are on Facebook and your extension is behind schedule.

How long before you ask them to stop?

And if the extension is ahead of schedule?

Northwind – Member

<snip> It’s just a new equivalent of nipping out for a fag or a coffee, or having a chat about the holidays.

Trouble is, the pi$$ takers do that as well.

No one objects to the odd 5 mins here and there. People being people forget that and it stretches until it impacts productivity. Hence the application of the heavy hand.

And if the extension is ahead of schedule?

Then they’ve over quoted the work so they can laze around at the companies expense.

Facebook is a load of bollox anyway.

Not if you’ve a mental age of 9 it isn’t, it’s more wonderful and necessary than oxygen.

No one objects to the odd 5 mins here and there.

Plenty of people do, it’d seem.

I’ve worked in environments where you’ve got to account for every last minute of your time and get a kicking if you stop to draw breath for a minute. It might please the pencil-pushers but it’s counterproductive and leads to a massive staff turnover rate.

Facebook is a load of bollox anyway.

A $50bn load of bollox.

Then they’ve over quoted the work so they can laze around at the companies expense.

Umm .. they provide a given service at a given price which you accepted.

So how would you feel if you had the builders round, you agreed to pay the £xx per hour no matter how much they get done.

Only a fool wouldn’t agree a fixed rate with a builder. 😉

If an employee gets their work done on time who cares what internets they look at. It comes back to a management issue and not assigning enough work to the individual.

Personally, I get more done in 55 minutes with a 5 minute break to mess about than I do in an hour… It’s just a new equivalent of nipping out for a fag or a coffee, or having a chat about the holidays

+1