Facebook in the office

Last night I had a conversation with some old friends which once again touched on Facebook within a company.  Their company like many has banned Facebook because they believe that people will waste time on Facebook rather than doing their job.  This is absolutely the wrong thing to do.

Banning Facebook because you are worried about malware delivered by it causing the company issues of password leakage etc. is a valid reason, but fears of time wasting is not.  Managing time wasting is a job that should be done by managers, it is what they are paid for.  Unfortunately they often feel if part of their job can be done by banning electronically then they can save themselves effort.  This may be because they do not truly understand computing or through force of habit but it cannot serve in the long run.

I first started having these conversations about web browsing in general, and later about instant messaging and it is clear people still do not get it.  If you are relying on corporate computer systems to stop employees wasting their time then you are going to fail.  Nowadays they can just as happily do Facebook and a lot else from their nice new android mobile phone on an unlimited contract.  Of course you could bring in rules to make them turn those in at the door but you’d also need to go through their bags looking for any magazines or books they may read as well.  That’s also ignoring the plethora of other technology they may carry from iPads to gameboys.

Worse in order to save your company money on office space you are also thinking about asking people to work from home more often.  Granted you can still control what is done on their corporate laptop via VPN services, but what are you going to do about the other distractions in the house?

The answer is for managers to man up and manage.  Know what an employee should be able to deliver in a certain time period and if he/she consistently fails then find out why and manage it through HR processes designed for the task.  I know it’s easier to just blame IT for letting them “play” but in our modern world of connectedness and distractions this is the only real way for companies to operate.  If you are looking for some ideas put ROWE in your search box and see where it leads you.