What Facebook costs business

[Abe]

Here we have a perfect example of the narrow-minded thinking that is so predominate in South Africa that it has seen us come last in all kinds of service delivery surveys.

Why do you make this out to be a South African "problem"? Have you worked overseas for a lot of companies? I worked in NZ for a year and the company I worked for adopted the same attitude. They restricted sites just as the South African companies do.

Lets look a little further at this site blocking. Big companies will probably do it because of the shear number employees and the bandwidt and employee time costs. Smaller companies are more likely to adopt a relaxed attitude and trust the employees more. Unfortunately, it's the smaller companies that will get hurt much more if an employee starts goes AWOL.

The costs to a business because of Facebook (as an example)
1) Bandwidth costs
2) Lost employee time
3) Internet delays for other users using the internet for work related activities.

You say "Trust the employees" but facebook, just like WOW, Trackmania Nations and even drugs is or can be addictive. Just look a couple of message back at the developer who lost his job because he could not stop using Facebook. IMO, it's better to remove the temptation and just let people get on with work. Hell, I spend about 30 minutes on MyADSL every day and that is probably 20 minutes more then it should be so it also has a certain amount of addiction.

One doesn't say "Just leave the drug addict to sort out his/her own problems", why is an addiction to something else any different.

 

[Chatmaster]

Abe I think you are missing the point. Most employees will do something anyway. Multi tasking is not uncommon amongst the younger generation either. Labeling Facebook as the culprit just does'nt make sense.

 

[Abe]

Abe I think you are missing the point. Most employees will do something anyway. Multi tasking is not uncommon amongst the younger generation either. Labeling Facebook as the culprit just does'nt make sense.

I am aware of the point but something like Facebook can be addictive and may result in employees "wasting" more time then they normally would. If one allows FB, why not computer games, etc? I am all for giving employees freedom but when things go wrong, it's normally in a big way. Why not just remove the temptation?

 

[eye_suc]

allowing workers access to FB would be like making a pedophile a kindergarten teacher

if you allow them, they will.

(says the guy who is addicted to myadsl )

 

[icyrus]

Why do you make this out to be a South African "problem"? Have you worked overseas for a lot of companies? I worked in NZ for a year and the company I worked for adopted the same attitude. They restricted sites just as the South African companies do.

It is not an uniquely South African problem, narrow-mindedness of managers is a global problem, but in South Africa it is a pandemic.

I am aware of the point but something like Facebook can be addictive and may result in employees "wasting" more time then they normally would. If one allows FB, why not computer games, etc? I am all for giving employees freedom but when things go wrong, it's normally in a big way. Why not just remove the temptation?

Personally I would not want someone working for me who could not control themselves and be productive without me constantly babying them.

In the end it boils down to personal responsibility. Let them know what is expected of them and if they don't deliver for what ever reason then get rid of them.

 

[Abe]

In the end it boils down to personal responsibility. Let them know what is expected of them and if they don't deliver for what ever reason then get rid of them.

I agree on principal, but this is a real world (Edit: Thiis is South Africa who have the most labour friendly laws in the world!). Have you ever tried to fire someone who doesn't want to go?

 

[SlappY]

Treat your staff like children and you can then expect them to act like children.



Here we have a perfect example of the narrow-minded thinking that is so predominate in South Africa that it has seen us come last in all kinds of service delivery surveys.

Here is a little bit of info for you to ponder: you could chain your employees to their desk, lock down their computers to the point where they can do nothing with them but work and that still doesn't guarantee that the time they spend in the office will be time they are actually working.

Needless to say, I can't imagine what sort of pitiful working environment you lot create for your employees.

And here we have an example of someone who obviously does not pay salaries for people who spend 4 hours of their 8 hour working days on facebook. I would call you narrow minded, but totally god dammed ignorant is prolly more to the point.

You tree hugger freedom types live on a different planet. In theory your arguments are good and all. But then so is Communism. You omit on important factor in your equation, people are lazy, greedy and self centered. When last did you meet someone who actually gave a damm about their job, they are few and far apart. As Chatmaster points out it isnt Facebook that is the problem, it is people lack of dicipline that is the problem. Employers are happy to let a couple of minutes slide here and there, but people WILL abuse the system. And as Abe points out, small companies wont really have a problem as micro management is possible, but scale up to about 200 employees and then how do you manage it?

Tell me, which is more fair. Blocking facebook or firing someone cause their work productivity has dropped off so drastically? People are doing their employees a favor by blocking sites like this, cause most of them cant control themselves.

 

[PostmanPot]

LOL, agreed SlappY!