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Social Networking: The New Workplace Smoke Break
snydeq writes "J. Peter Bruzzese sees a solution for organizations seeking to cut down employee time spent on social networks at work: treat social networking like a smoke break. 'Try as you might to keep social networks at bay, mobile devices let people be in constant connection to their social networking vices over the cellular networks, which you can't block. Still, it's not completely impossible to stop social time-wasting over mobile: You can establish policies that, if enforced strongly enough, eliminate social networks from being accessed on company time. Treat it like smoking: Let employees take a 15-minute coffee/smoking/Facebook break and make them go to a designated area to do it.'"
first post!
So - the smokers get double breaks?
Since, they will be smoking while using the social media - that's multi-tasking. Like, 30 minutes worth of break time in 15 minutes.
Not fair to those with untainted lungs!
You want to smoke your time away on Facebook? Umm ok... but if your co-workers don't see you in the office the following day, chances are you've been fired for slacking off. Several client businesses of mine have stated a zero tolerance for slacking off unless it's on your lunch break time. Management knows how addicting social media websites can be for some people.
Life is not for the lazy.
Perhaps they'll only gossip during the breaks too. Not gonna happen
Yes, heaven forbid your employees take 10 minutes off from their monotonous cubicle hellholes to communicate a little with friends and family. It's not like studies have shown that more worker breaks increase productivity or anything. Henry Ford actually told his workers to work less because they got more done.
Knows for sure what a relatively I ever did. It AWESOME and, after in1tial every chance I Zgot smells worse than a user. 'Now that in our group
Here's his other main account:
http://slashdot.org/~Overly%20Critical%20Guy
Plus tens to hundreds of other throwaway dummy accounts.
to look for an employer that isn't stuck trying to fit modern workplace paradigms into a tiny little box of thirty-year-old management strategies.
"We don't really get this social media thing, but we DO understand smoke breaks. Just send the geeks outside with the rest! Problem solved."
It's a pretty well known fact nowadays that the human brain is not a machine, and as such, needs a break every so often.
Since small breaks are actually needed to keep the brain fresh and doing good work what do you get forbidding these things? Answer: nothing good. People will find something else to do on the breaks even if it's talking to coworkers besides the coffee machine. Besides, they will be more resented, angry and productivity will probably be lower than if they were happy.
Of course, one thing is taking small breaks and another one is checking facebook every 5 minutes. In that case you're probably getting no work done. In the end is the same as restricting the Internet: A middle ground is probably the best choice. It also helps to communicate clearly the company policies regarding these things.
I work for a company that blocks social media, as well as "blogs" and "newsgroups" broadly categorised. Effectively the top 2-3 google results I get when searching for things like puppet recipes, or common faults are blocked. This company does NOT get social media. They asked us recently for comments regarding this policy, and I'll paraphrase mine here: Slacking off is slacking off. If people are disengaged, you don't make them more engaged by banning whatever they are doing to fill in the hours they are spending at their desk. OTOH if people are engaged, social media use might augment, rather than threaten productivity. It's interesting the number of people whose fear of social media is that it will make OTHER PEOPLE less productive. Not them of course, but "those damn kids".
Now we can start treating all the 'Social Networkers' as Pariahs just like we do with Smokers.
Send them outside into the rain and snow if they want to be sociable...
Social Networking can be very addictive. I've seen people lose their jobs for precisely this reason.
You can see the addicts every day.
They are the ones who in past years couldn't stop texting(SMS) during the morning commute.
Now they are posting on Facebook or Twatter.
I know of at least two who won't use the Subway because they are 'off the network' for anything up to 40 minutes at a time. They take the bus (Several) or the Train.
Sad really but a fact of life.
If you have competent management they cn tell who gets work done. Unless you work in a factory where you have shift breaks you can tell who isn't pulling their weight. It doesn't matter the reason. If someone can do the work while reading slashdot a few times a day who cares?
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
You'll need to apply a patch.
welcome our new slashdot corporatist overlords.
A lot
I completely agree with this - in a "cubicle" style work environment.
But in manual labour, customer service, etc. regular slacking off could have a measurable effect - and creating a structure to allow people short breaks instead could be the answer.
(Think how pissed off you'd get if you had to wait even 20 seconds for a cashier to finish replying on Facebook before serving you.)
They are saying "Let employees take a 15-minute coffee/smoking/Facebook break." That isn't even in the article, that is on the damn Slashdot post. I think it is reasonable to RTFP at least.
The reason employers worry about unrestricted Facebook access is because some employees will slack hard with it. I've seen it at work, and have friends who have seen it: People who will spend hours a day messing around on Facebook not doing anything useful.
This is a proposal saying "Don't ban it, workers need a break. Let them take a break and use it a reasonable amount."
I love that the message is tagged "fascist" :-D
Good thing I am a "non-smoker".
"You can establish policies that, if enforced strongly enough, eliminate social networks from being accessed on company time."
Douche. If you want to stop productivity at work so be it, but maybe the focus should be on you "self appointed enforcer" for stopping productivity. http://arstechnica.com/business/2009/04/study-surfing-the-internet-at-work-boosts-productivity/
"So - the smokers get double breaks?"
I have never been one to be "Jealous" of people, and whine about it. Reminds me of people that whine "The people on welfare should be drug tested, since I have to for a job" Just because you are tested, doesn't mean you should be in the first place. I am not "Jealous" of smokers or social media users, and I take breaks in my own way.
What happened to the good old days when people would work when they went to work? I love playing video games but I don't expect my employer to carve time out of my day to allow me to do that. Can we stop making excuses and just do our jobs? if I was paying my mechanic hourly to work on my cat for 5 hours @70$ an hour, and he spends 6 min per hour playing on Facebook, I've just paid him 35$ extra for nothing.
I'm concerned about second hand Facebook.
also high over time leads to more errors that can end taking more time over all to fix then it is to just work 40H weeks.
what about time wasted in meetings ?
Getting fresh air by inhaling smoke. War is peace.
"Stop failing the Turing test!" -- Dilbert
a /. break?
They can block whatever so long as they don't block /. .
I don't mind smokers taking short breaks from work as long as I've still got my toilet-breaks.
And yes, I am YELLING.
Not all of us are idiots here.
Social networks are used by idiots.
Stop the articles about social networks, or sink further into
mediocrity.
Work: The new /. smoke break.
Ceci n'est pas un sig.
If one more person mentions the buzz word "social networking" in regards to a glorified wiki I think I'm going to have a brain hemorrhage. Nerd rage is not something to treat lightly. Admit it, you all had friendster and myspace accounts.
You can block them and we do. We have several throughout our building to block cell phones, it's quite effective too.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!