Should companies block social networking sites in the office?

1. 89

   jpcmcposted 12 years ago

   Should companies block social networking sites in the office?
   
   Some say that social networking sites are a distraction to productivity at work.  Others think it is not.  But many companies opt to block social networking sites like Facebook in the office.

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2. 60

   MickSposted 12 years ago

   Yes, the employee is there to work.  The employer doesn't have a duty to provide those sites for employees to use.

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3. 80

   Uninvited Writerposted 12 years ago

   I is also a big user of bandwidth. The last company I worked for banned it at work. Most can use it responsibly but there are always some who can't.

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4. 66

   Writerly Yoursposted 12 years ago

   Employers have a right to block social sites- agreed.
   
   Yes, work is work and it has to get done and we must focus on that since that's what we get paid for.
   
   However, if an organization is going to block a social site then block it for ALL titles, positions and rank. Some employers even block having Internet access depending on your title or if your area has a "need" for it.  Also, most of us have gadgets that have all that access anyway.  In addition, depending on the company or organization social site monitoring is essential for business communication.
   
   Great and engaging question.
   
   Thank you.

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5. 60

   Dahlia Flowerposted 12 years ago

   I think social networking sites should absolutely be blocked.  There is no place or time for them during office hours.

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6. 71

   abhijeet4800posted 12 years ago

   It totally depends upon the mindset and age group of employees. There are certain junior employees for whom facebook is everything, they wish to have some nice office colleague as their friend, and without facebook, they might have not dared to talk to that individual personally. hence kind of employees tend to spend a large portion of office hours on such sites. However, the other kind includes individuals who regularly login to facebook only to check updates and stay online for not more than 20 mins.
   
   Now since the majority of employees in an organisation is of the former category than the latter ones, the company is forced to restrict such sites within premises.
   
   I have written more about it in  below hub:
   
   http://abhijeet4800.hubpages.com/hub/So … oductivity
   
   Please revert incase you beg to differ...

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7. 60

   LacretiaHardyposted 11 years ago

   I think it depends on the type of business.  If its a company that relies heavily on sales and marketing, then I think employees should be encouraged to engage in social media for the purposes of generating business.  Of course, there will be some people that abuse the privilege, but if you hire the right people from the start, that shouldn't be a huge problem.

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