{"id":317,"date":"2007-09-05T15:20:20","date_gmt":"2007-09-05T19:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sarahdopp.com\/blog\/?p=317"},"modified":"2007-09-05T15:20:20","modified_gmt":"2007-09-05T19:20:20","slug":"dont-ban-facebook-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/2007\/dont-ban-facebook-at-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Ban Facebook at Work"},"content":{"rendered":"
Heads up, this content is 19 years old. Please keep its age in mind while reading.<\/div>

\"facebook.gif\"This week in PCWorld, there is a controversial article<\/a> recommending that employers allow access to social networking websites like Facebook<\/a> in the workplace. The recommendation comes from Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Trades Union Congress<\/a> (TUC), which is a federation of trade unions in the United Kingdom that lobbies for fairness in the workplace. Their primary argument is that banning Facebook is an overreaction, and will create a backlash from employees. Instead, they recommend setting policies for appropriate use. The recommendation is relevant in the United States as well.<\/p>\n

I’m a project manager in the tech industry with a focus on social media and networking websites. Highly public recommendations like this one affect the volatile climate of my industry by further coloring public opinion and setting corporate standards. Facebook\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s widespread popularity is a new phenomenon, and how people incorporate it into the workplace will likely set precedents and trends for all other Web 2.0 sites.<\/p>\n

Personally, I agree with the recommendation, although not for the same reasons. The TUC is responding to a fear among employers that access to social networking sites will make their employees lazy, and they counter-argue that employee laziness is not a new phenomenon. As an active member of the social media development communities, however, I see a different angle to the situation. Facebook is a powerful and customizable information and networking tool. If used properly in a professional setting, it can actually make people more productive, focused, and resourceful.<\/p>\n

Web Worker Daily published an article in July titled \u00e2\u20ac\u015312 Ways to Use Facebook Professionally<\/a>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It offers recommendations for managing industry groups within the interface, and suggests arranging your profile like you would arrange your desk \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with work-appropriate items that inspire you. Between unlimited applications and granular privacy settings, users have the power to customize their experiences and how they present themselves toward whatever is most important to them \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and that can absolutely be work-related.<\/p>\n

I understand that not everyone would choose to use Facebook to augment their productivity at work, even if they understood how to. I also understand that many jobs do not easily lend themselves to a social networking presence. And in these contexts, I agree with the TUC \u00e2\u20ac\u201c employees may simply be pursuing their social life at work, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the employer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s responsibility to set standards, but not block it out entirely.<\/p>\n

However, simply acknowledging that social networking sites can be used productively in the work environment opens up a whole new angle for the public\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relationship to the web. It is an evolving beast, for sure, and it will continue to change. So at the very least, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s keep the doors open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heads up, this content is 19 years old. Please keep its age in mind while reading.This week in PCWorld, there is a controversial article recommending that employers allow access to social networking websites like Facebook in the workplace. The recommendation comes from Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Trades Union Congress (TUC), which is a federation of trade unions in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-management","category-web_20"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}