Comments on: Butt Out IT! Facebook "Productivity Loss" Is No Concern of Yours

By: » Blog Archive » Tech Talk For the New Year (from Information Week)

» Blog Archive » Tech Talk For the New Year (from Information Week) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:25:59 +0000

[...] his blog post, which carries the headline “Butt Out IT!”, Gartner’s Prentice begins by making some fairly logical and reasoned arguments: Secondly, [...]

By: Laughable

Laughable — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:40:34 +0000

Ever heard of social engineering? Of course it should be policed. Nuff said.

By: Doug Taylor

Doug Taylor — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:31:36 +0000

The issue isn’t about visiting Facebook, YouTube or ESPN a couple of minutes each day – the real issue is when employees abuse the privilege of using sites like these. The evidence is out there – The Pew Internet Project found that employees waste up to two hours a day on non-work related activities, the biggest one being personal Internet surfing. According to a new report by Nielsen Online, most online videos in the U.S. are watched at work between 9am and 5pm during the work week. Even the online porn industry confirms that the most popular time spent on their sites is during work hours. This isn’t just a waste of employer paid time – it robs the organization of bandwidth, causes IT headaches due to downloaded malware and reduced storage capacity and opens up organizations to legal issues such as sexual harassment, illegal media downloads and potentially embarrassing public relations nightmares such as sexual predators and child porn arrests. According to a survey conducted by SpectorSoft of its customers who use that company’s Spector 360 PC and Internet monitoring software – 96% said the software confirmed their original suspicions. 89% of the companies surveyed found more abuse than they expected, with 28% finding “far more” abuse.

SpectorSoft Survey: http://downloads.spectorsoft.com/resources/WhitePapers/monitoringSurvey.pdf

By: Andrew Walls

Andrew Walls — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 02:54:31 +0000

The litmus test I have always applied to this sort of question (should we block it?) is to ask whether we have a pattern of preventing the analogue version of the same activity. In the early days of web filtering, I was often asked to implement filters to block pornography, gambling sites, share trading, etc. It was easy enough to do this (if you had some $$$), but the real issue is whether the organization performed the same blocking outside of the IT environment.

Does management monitor you to make sure you aren’t reading a magazine, chatting with colleagues about non-work issues, making phone calls to your partner, etc.? If we don’t police these activities in the analogue world (occasionally referred to as the ‘real world’) why should we police it in the digital world?

This is an issue about personnel management, not IT management. Yes, we can use technology to implement personnel management, but it is a crude tool applied to a subtle issue. If people are wasting valuable time we need to look at the reasons for their lack of engagement with work tasks before we treat the symptoms. But, that sounds like hard work. It might be easier to just block a few more web sites and act like we actually did something about productivity (not!).

By: This Week in Browsing | Brian Dusablon

This Week in Browsing | Brian Dusablon — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 05:03:24 +0000

[...] Butt Out IT – well said [...]

By: Gordon Whitehead

Gordon Whitehead — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:06:27 +0000

Spot on matey…but out IT, get back to wearing cardigans.

By: Brian Dusablon

Brian Dusablon — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 01:36:28 +0000

Great post. I agree for the most part. There are lines to be drawn around how people use company property (computers and bandwidth), but for the most part, it’s harmless.

Policies and guidelines must exist, but full-on boycotting is more annoying than productive.

As for the work hours issue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROWE

By: Will Johnston

Will Johnston — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:50:09 +0000

Love the post, you’re right. If employees are working 50 hours/week and constantly checking their Blackberries, then keeping up with folks on Facebook while at the office isn’t a big deal. The whole idea of salaried (vs. hourly) employees is that you have a job that you are responsible for. You’re not being paid for the number of hours you work but for what you accomplish.

By: Mich

Mich — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:39:16 +0000

I agree that it’s not the place of IT to concern themselves with work productivity. I could even imagine feeling like my privacy was violated because I too use FB for business purposes, in addition to personal use. However, in IT’s defense, there is a line in terms of what’s appropriate and what isn’t, and most users tend to cross it pretty regularly. I’m sure if I were to go back and perform a hard edit on my own usage, I’m sure I would find something even I might deem inappropriate about myself–and I try to be very PC (no pun intended). I think Nick’s right: There will be a lot of discussion about this in the future, as there should be. I might also wish to discuss how much time IT seems to have on their hands as well.

By: Nick Jones

Nick Jones — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:34:00 +0000

I don’t disagree, but I’m not sure IT is the big problem here. They may be annoyed at their lack of control, or jealous that the users (and even their own children) have cooller technology and a more exciting virtual life than they do. But it’s interesting to run the clock forward a bit and ask where corporations will draw the line. Because I do believe a line will be drawn at some point.

For example: what about what I call “gratuitous video” – people might start streaming video from a PC webcam all the time just so their freinds / relatives can look to see if they’re at their desk? What if the more extreme forms of lifeblogging became popular and younger employees walked around with a few tiny wireless webcams built into their clothes recording and broadcasting everything they do? Would any corporation feel happy about that?

I think this is symptomatic of a wider tension in society; between a cultural shift to more personal openness and less privacy and a corporate desire to retain control of information. IMHO this a war in which there are a lot more battles to be fought.