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My company blocks social media at work. It blocks MySpace, Plaxo, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and commenting on blogs, though you can create a very basic LinkedIn profile if you sign an affidavit saying you understand the rules and will play by them or risk getting fired.
We block text messaging on your cell phone, and we don’t allow you to access your personal email on your corporate owned Blackberry.
My company also says I can’t share my company name with anyone unless I ask for permission first.
I’m OK with these rules because when I’m not at work, I can do whatever I want…as long as I don’t say anything stupid about the stock market or about the company I work for.
Simple rules to follow.
We’re not going to unblock new because one study shows folks are 9% more productive when they use new media at work.
We don’t block new media because of productivity or wasting time or anything like that.
We block these because we have no way of monitoring all the stuff people might say while they are using their work computer. I work for a financial services company, and we are required to keep a copy of EVERY piece of electronic communication our associates might send to their clients. And it’s not possible to do that right now, at least not easily, if we allow access to these sites.
I am all for blocking all new media at work for this reason.
But that’s the only reason I think you should block new media at work.
We log every website folks have ever visited, and while I look at total numbers my team is surfing a few times a month, I know if they are slacking or not LONG before I see the numbers. The numbers are a lag indicator, not a lead indicator.
If you don’t trust your people enough to let them use the cool tools that are out there, to take a mental break a little bit of the time, then you don’t deserve to be a manager.
You won’t be a better manager if you block all new media.
You also won’t be a better manager if you allow all new media.
It’s all about WHY you do what you do.
Please share: What do YOU do and why do YOU do it?
New media photo credit to jeremyvaught
Our work also has a policy of blocking social media. Again, I don’t think this is because of the slacker thing because of the huge amount of content that is not blocked (all streaming media is though).
There is probably a policy document somewhere that says why they do this. The thing is, I don’t know where it is. Of course, this means I have no idea why they do it. That’s my problem with it!
1017 days ago
[...] over at Slacker Manager has a different take though. Here’s a quote from the article Block New Media at Work. We block these because we have no way of monitoring all the stuff people might say while they are [...]
I agree with the blocking more now than I did. Your post brought up a huge point about how you can’t track everything people say/do on those sites. Financial service corporations are especially susceptible.
At our work that’s less of a risk, but there is always the risk is that folks will complain or diss our company. However, that risk exits regardless of being at work or not. They’ll do that sort of stupid stuff regardless.
We block because of the slacker risk. Not sure why when we don’t block other stuff that’s as big a time waster.
Funny thing, they block streaming media of any type. Reason? Bandwidth.
In any case, I’ll give it a second thought when someone complains about their employer blocking a specific site.
It really bugs me that so many companies block media sites, I’ve just blogged about it myself! http://lawsie.blogspot.com/2009/04/idiocy-of-blocking-sites-in-corporate.html
“then you don’t deserve to be a manager.”
now THAT is a oversimplification. Especially when you talk about newmedia.
things like facebook, twitter or myspace steal time. They do not input anything into your life. They only help you in not getting bothered while you are lazy. The things that are attractive will always take precidence over a manager….
in short, DO trust the people, but do not give them opportunities to prove themselves untrustful