- Butt Out IT! Facebook "Productivity Loss" Is No Concern of Yours
- Gartner: IT Has 'No Moral Basis' To Monitor Facebook
Trey's Thoughts on the Subject:
Doing what I do for a living, I can see both sides of the coin. Management will always make the argument that they bought the equipment, paid for the Internet access, and are paying the employees to work for them, and therefore have every right to monitor and manage what said employees do during work hours. Employees will typically argue that they give more time and effort to their employer than they are paid for and therefore a couple of minutes spent on Facebook or checking their personal email isn't going to bankrupt the company. Both sides have very valid arguments.
It is my personal opinion that employees should be allowed some leeway in using employer provided technology for personal use. However, I think that there should be clear policies on what type of use is acceptable and what is not. Checking your Yahoo! email account once or twice a day is probably OK in most settings. Sending a "tweet" every time you take a file out of the file cabinet is abusing the privilege. In the long run, the majority of employees are going to use the technology that is provided to them in a responsible manner. The policies are there for those who don't - and they should be enforced consistently and fairly.
Moreover, I believe that employers do have the right to monitor usage of technology resources as long as employees are given notice that the monitoring is taking place. After all, they are footing the bill. However, the "threat" of monitoring is usually enough to keep the average employee on the straight and narrow without having to devote the resources to actual monitoring.
So, in a nutshell, employees should be free to use the resources they have access to in a wise and responsible way. And employers should have rules in place to make sure they do; and to deal with those who do not.
