Blocking Social networking at work- right or wrong?

Every eight out of ten person is on social networking media, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter or any other sites. Even CEO’s, MD, managers and higher officials can be found on those media. So, if it is called as “bad” then why are they there?

The question which still prevails in most of the organizations is– should these sites be banned for employees or college students?

There are different opinions of different people. So what should be the real solution to this?

According to the Nucleus Research survey, employers are losing 1.5 workers per 100 in employee productivity to the supposed time-wasting activity known as “Facebooking.”

Even students lose their concentration while studying or while working in lab. Their mind wanders near these sites only as many of us are now addicted to it.

It is to say when given a chance, a person logs in minimum ten times in his spare time, just to see if there have been any comments on his status, or like on his picture or any updates. It can be summarized as “human behavior – we if given a choice would definitely divert from our work at some point of time.

As every coin have two faces so there is a second opinion on this concept too.

We all need small breaks from our work every now and then as we are humans not machines. Even if social networking is banned, it doesn’t mean employee won’t find any other means of deflecting himself from the job if he wants to. 

Same can be said for students too. There are researches which states people who took small breaks between tasks were 9% more productive than others who did not. “It gives them a chance to reset their concentration”. 

This issue is again not a scenario which can be defined as pure white or pure black. There are some gray regions in this, which needs to be addressed. On the whole, we must leave it to an individual. Let him/her decide on whether they want to waste time on such stuffs or they want to make use of it. If they don’t perform, then organization can take measures to talk to that person.

The question which now arises is how many of us would not touch social networking sites as a matter of personal discipline?

And this can be answered by individuals only as they are the one who have choice to balance their job as well as their pass time. If they prefer to waste their time- then they will find other ways other than these sites. On the whole it can be productive as well as non productive, which totally depends on individual’s perceptions. Banning sites is never a solution, if they want to stimulate their productivity or educational values, may be disciplining those who don’t work as they are expected to, can be one of the solutions.