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14 thoughts on “Banning Facebook”

  1. Anonymous

    Get the IP of Facebook. Edit your host file. Make an entry for WorkplaceCommunity.org with Facebook's IP.
    When you browse the site, the same dumb exec who banned Facebook will embrace WorkplaceCommunity.org (sorry sir, you have to be a member).

  2. Anonymous

    I still can't believe the people do not understand or comprehend the difference between work and personal time and work appropriate use of email and the Internet.
    It's one thing if your employer's policy says that limited personal use of email and the Internet is appropriate. But to say that it is not appropriate for a business to decide that the use of Facebook, You Tube, MySpace or name of other web site is not allowed is ridiculous. When you run your own business or are your own you can decide what is or is not appropriate use of email and the Internet when you are on the clock. That aside, you are the employee and as a condition of your employment you are subject to the policies and procedures set forth by your employer.
    To draw an analogy I'm sure we would all love to wear jeans to work every day instead of a suit and tie. By your argument, a business should not be allowed to set forth a dress code because employees might be inconvenienced by it.
    Bottom line – if you don't like the policies and procedures at your current employer, find a new one. I'd love to know what company you find that says it okay for you to dress however you feel and surf the Internet all day while you're being paid to do a specific job.

  3. Anonymous

    @Kurt: Employers have the right to establish these policies – but that doesn't mean they're in the employer's best interest. That's all Toby is saying. A discontent or lazy employee is going to find ways to avoid their work regardless. Judge performance, don't count minutes.
    Generally smart, content employees do the right thing. If you need to dress a certain way to effectively interact with clients, you will, regardless of whether executives tell you to. If you have a job to get done, you'll do it before mucking around on Facebook.
    The workforce is changing and if employers want to get the best, brightest, free-thinking employees, they might need to rethink their policies so that they attract, not alienate, these people.

  4. Anonymous

    Thanks for the note Kurt and we're on agreement for most. However, I'm not saying employees can wear anything — or say anything or read anything — at work. I'm saying you SHOULD HAVE THE POLICY that spells out the rules for what is acceptable use of the Internet, and what is acceptable clothing, etc. AND TREAT EMPLOYEES LIKE ADULTS to adhere to those policies rather than apply outright bans (e.g. some Facebook is okay, but not hours per day…. jeans are okay on some occasions, but not everyday). Get it? I'm not saying its okay to do whatever you want, I'm saying make the rules and then treat employees accordingly (i.e. adults) – Toby

  5. Anonymous

    Rick,
    I do understand the point, but I still think this is a case of the employee needed to understand what is and is not appropriate workplace behavior. If you are in an environment where all of the employees understand this and the impact of using sites on this on a network, I think you are very lucky and in the minority.
    We have banned MySpace and You Tube (along with radio station streams) here becaue people do not understand the impact of streaming audio/video on network traffic. We constantly get requests for increased network speed – we already have it – but then people do not understand why they shouldn't try to email 50+ MB files to entire departments or why the network slows down when files like this are sent in or out. They also do not understand that audio/video steams are not network friendly. We also have issues with people thinking the computers we supply for work are their own personal computers that they can do with what they will.
    I think if an employee is truely responsible a line in the the company policy about appropriate use – breaks or over lunch – would suffice. Unfortunately, experience tells me that a lot of people are not that responsible – whether that has to do with a lack of technical knowledge or not may be the real issue. We try to dumb down a lot of technology jargon and tell people what we think they need to know, but we do a bad job of providing them with the information to understand WHY we do it.
    That being said, whether or not your employer will let you spend as much time as you want surfing the web during work hours doesn't sound like a great criteria to use when deciding whether or not to work for a company.
    I also think that if I was manager/boss/owner and my employees felt they had so much free time that not being able to surf Facebook was making them think of looking elsewhere – I'd be more then happy to let them go. If they have that much freetime, they should be looking for more work to do…or maybe I'm just old fashioned thinking I should put in a full days work that I'm getting paid for instead of seeing if I beat my friends high score on a game.

  6. Anonymous

    All very good points and worth ones too, Kurt. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and the experience at your organization. I may do a reprise of this article and would be happy to quote you if you feel comfortable sharing your name, title and company? Or would u prefer to be anonymous on this one? Cheers, Toby (feel free to send me a Facebook or LinkedIn invite)

  7. Anonymous

    I agree with you 100% on the bandwidth issues regarding YouTube, and other similar sites.
    But I much prefer Toby's proposal of clear policy surrounding the use of the internet. An inspired, content employee with good direction from their manager will rarely waste time on the clock, in my experience. One way of keeping employees content is by treating them like adults. This does require a lot of good communications from management, IT, etc. I think this has a worthwhile payoff though.
    Sure there are exceptions – some people will just take advantage regardless. Maybe they're not the minority I think they are. But I'm definitely not in that category. I like guidance, not having my hand held every step.
    I'll disclose that I work in internal web communications – I use the web as a learning tool to develop my knowledge of trends. Which is why I subscribe to this blog.

  8. Anonymous

    Excellent comments Rick. You're bang on. The average person or employee is just like you and would never spend more than 5 minutes on YouTube while at work. And thats why the policy approach is best — it doesn't all employees, but it keeps the bad ones in check; a ban punishes all employees, most of which are very good, trustworthy, and have little to no interest in YouTube.
    Cheers,

  9. Anonymous

    You are welcome to quote me by name but I'll need to leave my company out of this one. It's a large law firm.

  12. Anonymous

    it is not appropriate for a business to decide that the use of Facebook, You Tube, MySpace or name of other web site is not allowed is ridiculous. When you run your own business or are your own you can decide what is or is not appropriate use of email and the Internet when you are on the clock.

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