Blocking internet usage

We have recently seen a rise in the amount of time our employees are spending on social networking websites during working hours. We have not truly monitored the internet usage to this point except on a case by case basis. Because of the time spent on these websites, primarily Facebook, we are contemplating blocking the availability of all social sites. How do the majority of companies handle this dilemma?

Comments

  • 24 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • No dilemma here at all... The internet is blocked, with exceptions granted based on business necessity. I don't see that changing at all.

    What I do see changing is what we regard business necessity. I would like to make better use of social networking sites, for example, to promote internal projects or to provide opportunties for more casual collaboration. I could also use it as a platform for employees to view the stuff I make on my own time, like this:
    [URL="http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6781353"][FONT=Consolas][COLOR=#800080]http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6781353[/COLOR][/FONT][/URL]

    (Apologies in advance to my banking friends here.)

    Hey, it was my first shot. I'll refine it this week, and incorporate it in our orientation for levity. The point is, none of my employees can view that at work.

    And that's wrong. Just plain wrong. :)
  • I went to the website, but just could not bring myself to press play.
  • [QUOTE=ACU Frank;720153]

    The point is, none of my employees can view that at work.

    And that's wrong. Just plain wrong. :)[/QUOTE]

    Err.. are you talking about the employees not being able to see it, or the actual clip? O:)
  • I think I know who my next one will feature. :)
  • I clicked play ... and I liked it. Way to go, Frank!

    Sharon
  • [quote=joannie;720154]I went to the website, but just could not bring myself to press play.[/quote]

    I couldn't even get into the website...our system blocked it!
  • Liked the animation - very South Parkish without the profanity.
  • I did press play and got my morning laugh. Well done. (I hope it was supposed to be funny)
  • Frank, you don't have any extra time on your hands, do you?
  • It was one of those midnight projects.
  • Frank, I thought your cartoon was marvelous! (Way to hijack a thread, btw)

    From what I am hearing, reading, seeing -- there is no way most companies will be able to keep the social networks from being a part of business. Just look at the number of companies you do business with who have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. presence. Personally, I think to ban them is just plain backwards.

    So set a decent and reasonable policy on usage and have your managers truly manage. Abuse is a performance issue (that's my mantra these days).
  • I have been doing some research on this topic lately and a lot of what I have found points to having a policy that addresses things like inappropriate uses (dissing a coworker on Facebook) since for many workplaces blocking the Internet would be too complicated and/or would cause and uprising.

    Then, the issue is addressed as a performance problem. For example, someone spends so much time on Facebook that she misses deadlines. The missed deadlines are addressed, not the Facebook usage.

    If you have an employee who turns in great work and doesn't miss deadlines, does it bother you to walk into/by his office and see him on Facebook? Do you feel if he has that free time, he should be looking for something beyond his normal duties to do? Or do you feel that it's fine for him to play on Facebook at work so long as all of his work gets done? Does your answer to those questions take into account the fact that maybe someone who isn't as good of a worker and also plays on Facebook during work time might point to the good worker and say "But he is on Facebook during work . . ."?
  • In principal I wouldn't mind an exempt employee being on fb for long periods of time providing they were meeting all their deadlines, etc. I would have a problem with an hourly employee doing so. I see exempt employees as being paid for a job so as long as it is done well, no problem. I would feel an hourly employee was stealing time.

    I can see a real problem though, even for exempt employees. Hourly employees sometimes feel exempt employees get more from the company than they do. If they walked by and saw someone playing fv on fb during the workday it would cause a lot of hard feelings. As with other areas (coming in late, long lunches, etc) we try to remind our exempt employees that we expect them to work well with other employees, and that includes not doing things that cause friction if they can be avoided.
  • Interesting cartoon Frank. Very funny. Was this just for fun or are you thinking of actually using it in some way?

    I want to make one now too.
  • We have a few sites that are approved for everyone - such as an onlne traning programs, access to insurance companies, etc.. Other than these types of sites we block internet access unless the employee has a business need to have additional access. For some we set up access to a few specific sites and to a few others it is unlimited access. For someone to have unlimited access our Tecnology committee must approve their access.
  • [QUOTE=NaeNae55;720184]Hourly employees sometimes feel exempt employees get more from the company than they do. [/QUOTE]

    Yeah, here also -- but it is a-okay when we stay hours and hours for evening meetings, come in week-ends to make project deadlines or visit clients, etc. I have gotten to the point that when a non-exempt comes to me with that complaint I can no longer empathize.
  • [QUOTE=Dasher;720189]Yeah, here also -- but it is a-okay when we stay hours and hours for evening meetings, come in week-ends to make project deadlines or visit clients, etc. I have gotten to the point that when a non-exempt comes to me with that complaint I can no longer empathize.[/QUOTE]

    The problem is that they don't really[I] see[/I] everyone stay and work the extra hours. They hear about it, so they acknowledge it. But since they don't see it they don't always get it.

    We also have a few exempt who often don't even work 40 here. They have specialized work that no one else can do, and we must have someone to do it. Several exempt, including the top (and me) are frequently not here at 8. We put in plenty of hours, and the employees know it, but it can leave a bad impression. They see me the most, so I do my best. I have come in on a Saturday and helped the hourly employees when they were under a deadline. They knew I didn't get paid while they were getting overtime. That has gone a long way to ease tensions. However, it has been awhile since that has happened and we have had some turnover. I have been trying to get here earlier, but it is tough to rush around when I know my boss doesn't care. :angel:
  • [QUOTE=Dutch2;720188]We have a few sites that are approved for everyone - such as an onlne traning programs, access to insurance companies, etc.. Other than these types of sites we block internet access unless the employee has a business need to have additional access. For some we set up access to a few specific sites and to a few others it is unlimited access. For someone to have unlimited access our Tecnology committee must approve their access.[/QUOTE]

    Is this because of past experience or as a precaution?

    We treat the internet as a resource and handle abuse as a disciplinary issue. I can't imagine how much money we would have wasted on experts by now if we didn't have complete access. (We are too small for our own IT department - I am it.)
  • Paul, I have several ways I want to use this one and others I am drafting.

    The example I posted can be used as a meeting icebreaker or orientation transition. If new employee Tom Smith is here for orientation, I can show him a version that includes an additional panel... In the middle of the "Do they have ATMs?" etc., I can put in a line that asks "Do they have Tom Smith?" and have the other character answer "Of course!" Or something similar.

    I can put together a little cartoon to announce a promotion, a new policy, a contest winner, or anything I'd like. I'm thinking of picking one standard character and giving him a name, and having that character be our internal "spokesman".

    My biggest challenge with all this is finding a way to actually display the cartoons, since most of our employees would be blocked from viewing it (thus, my inclusion of the subject in this thread to begin with). There is supposed to be a way to download a copy of the cartoon as a standalone video file, but I haven't been able to get that to work yet.
  • Hey, I don't do this very often, but I couldn't avoid noticing that we have an audio event coming up next Tuesday that is directly related to this thread. The event promises to cover, among other things, the best way to structure policies to deal with employees' online activity. Here is a link.

    [url]http://www.hrhero.com/audio/web-risks/?UPAC[/url]

    Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming! tk
  • Everyone here has complete access to anything on the internet. Being a small company we treat abuse as a disciplinary action. So far we have had no obvious abuse. We have to have access as we use facebook, twitter and blogs as tools for our business.
  • Frank: how fast can you crank those cartoons out?

    I was reading about the Old Spice/youtube/twitter campaign and it's success. They cranked out 200 responses of 45 seconds or less. I suddenly had a vision of you and your cartoon ad. How fun! Can't wait to see it. ::pb&J::
  • Okay, so here's an example of how I could use and re-use the cartoon for each new hire:

    [URL="http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6799701/"][FONT=Consolas]http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6799701/[/FONT][/URL]

    In this case, I've added 10 seconds at the end to mention our most recent addition. If I would have had this when she started, I would have included it in her orientation, as a fun little welcome.
  • Back to the subject of whether social networking interferes with work and leads to employment law problems, here is a column from today's [I]USA Today[/I] that makes the case for letting employees do some "flitting on Facebook": [URL]http://bit.ly/9UvO7K[/URL] Essentially, the argument is that the benefits outweigh the risks. tk
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