Alright I feel like I'm on a roll tonight so here is another post I think this generation can appreciate and agree with.
While searching through different social media articles on the internet I found this article on how a good amount of businesses--54% to be exact--do not allow their employees to view social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube while in the workplace. Now, on the surface this may not seem too terribly bad to you but the article explains that there is great hipocracy with in regards to these businesses. The article explains that roughly 98% of businesses have some activity on social media sites. It seems a little dumb to block employees from using the vary sites the businesses themselves use for marketing.
The argument for why these companies do this is reasonable yet kind of a stretch. They believe that if employees have access to these sites, there will be more time wasted in the workplace. The article quickly shoots down this argument by explaining it as a managerial problem not a social media problem. The writer goes on to explain 5 reasons why social media should be allowed in the workplace including, the fact that more companies are investing in social media to market their business, it is easy for professionals to network and make other business connections, a vast majority of our generation won't consider a job if social media is blocked, along with a couple others.
Though the writer may be making a stretch on their reasoning through some of this article, I feel they made some generally good points behind their argument. I encourage you to check out this article and let me know what you think. Peace Out!
http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/Why_companies_should_stop_blocking_social_media__9024.aspx
I definitely agree that the author makes a bit of a stretch on their reasoning for allowing social media use in the workplace. However, their reasoning that companies are using social media for marketing and allows professionals to network and make business connections are two good reasons to allow access to social networking. I think that it should be allowed if employees are using the social media for work related issues, but I don't know how managers would be able to keep up with who is using it for work, and who is using it for personal reasons. I know that for me, I would spend a lot of wasted time on social network sites if it was allowed at the place I worked. Although I may spend some time doing work related activities, I would end up getting off topic and spending all my time "Facebook creeping" or watching Youtube videos. I think it's really interesting that some companies are considering allowing social media usage at work, but I think they will find that many employees are like me and will spend a lot of wasted time on these sites.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Katie Beth. Employees should be allowed to use social media for work related issues. But how will companies monitor this? I'm sure many companies experience difficulty with employees wasting time on these sites. I know I would spend valuable company time on Facebook and Twitter.
ReplyDeleteI too am not sure how employers would be able to differentiate social networking usage from work-related issues to personal. I'm with mrcarter, I could see myself using Facebook or other social networking sites for personal reasons while at work if bored and allowed to do so. It will be interesting to see what sort of trend this issue lends itself to. Will most employers give in to this while simultaneously attempting to find ways to monitor usage, or will many continue to stamp it out entirely? I do not think that the latter of the two could ever be the case with the way social networking is expanding to include businesses as well.
ReplyDeleteI could not agree with you more Steve. There are many articles out there and research has been done to show that employees that have "free-reign" on what social sites they can visit at the workplace are more productive. It is always astonishing to me as well that the most hypocritical -those companies with the strongest blocks on their employees computers are in fact marketing and sales companies. These are the very organizations that should be utilizing these social sites throughout the duration of their work day!
ReplyDelete