June 11, 2010

Give me Facebook or give me unemployment?

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Would you turn your nose up at a job that didn't allow you to access your personal e-mail or social networking sites like Facebook on company time? One in five younger workers would, says a new survey from London-based software security company Clearswift.

[Image by Oversocialized]

With a new crop of college grads getting turned loose on the job market this weekend, I have to say, really? In the worst job drought since your great-grandparents were trudging eleventy-million miles in the snow to line up for a few scraps of three-week-old bread, you would pass on an employer just because they want you to do your job while you are at work?

But it's not just about being able to conduct your personal business on company time, says Clearswift, which polled 1,600 managers and employees in the UK, United States, Germany, and Australia this January and February for the survey. It's about having autonomy at work and having a manager who trusts that you're adult enough to get the job done in the allotted time, even if you do dash off a few personal e-mails or Facebook status updates during business hours.

Clearswift calls such workers "Generation Standby" because they "never seem to fully switch off from work or home," especially now that employment hours have become so demanding and technology makes it so dangerously easy to work (or slack) around the clock.

So how much of this standby generation takes some online personal time while at the office? According to the Clearswift survey, 57 percent of 25- to 34-year-old respondents said they use the web for personal purposes at work, be it checking their social media accounts, sending e-mail, or shopping. And 66 percent of respondents said they stay at work later or skip lunch to compensate for time they spend conducting personal business online.

As Clearswift Global HR Director Hilary Backwell says, "[T]his cultural shift raises new questions about trust in the workplace, the use of new technologies, the balance of power in the employer vs. employee relationship, and levels of control that businesses now have over people and content."

I like my job autonomy as much as the next working stiff. And I agree that it's a tad over the top (not to mention a bit micromanaging) for an employer to block employee access to social media sites. But it's hard to blame budget-conscious employers for wanting to put the kibosh on what the Wall Street Journal calls cyberslacking when study after study shows workers admitting to goofing off on the web or elsewhere two hours a day.

In her recent article about the prospect of Facebook-free workplaces, Wall Street Journal reporter Sarah Needleman highlighted a couple of small business owners who have struck a compromise with employees about on-the-job cyberslacking. My favorite is the owner of a merger-advisory firm in Colorado who Needleman interviewed. Since installing tracking software on his employees' computers and discovering that they were using 45 minutes of each day to conduct their personal business online, he's dedicated an office solely to "nonwork-related internet activities." That way, if his employees need to pay a few bills online or e-mail a friend about upcoming travel plans during the workday, they don't need to waste their lunch hour looking for a wifi cafe and they don't have to worry about their internet use being tracked.

Of course, not all business owners are as understanding of their employees having a life outside work. So for all the new grads out there worried about Facebook-free workplaces, I have a suggestion: If you can't bear to not use social media during business hours, go into marketing, public relations, community outreach work, or another communications-based field. That way, you can sit on Facebook and Twitter all day long and get paid to do it.

Michelle Goodman is the author of "My So-Called Freelance Life" and "The Anti 9-to-5 Guide." E-mail Michelle at mgoodman@nwjobs.com

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entry level, management, social media, work/life balance

4 Comments

Steph Auteri on June 13, 2010 6:57 PM | Reply

I have to admit, I'm with those college grads. I have no interest in working for a company that micromanages every minute of my time, not trusting me to get the job done. In my opinion, a job well done has nothing to do with the hours spent doing it... it's about, well, a job well done. Sometimes, work hours seem so arbitrary.

Then again, I'm the type who never misses a deadline, and kills myself to please all clients and employers. I suppose there are those who take advantage...

Anonymous on June 13, 2010 11:52 PM | Reply

The company I currently work at contains a handful of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers who are constantly on Facebook; it's not just the 23 year olds fresh out of college who do it.

I personally don't see how a minute here or there online checking email or whatnot is any different than chatting with someone at their cube or the water cooler.

Kelly on June 15, 2010 1:47 PM | Reply

As an IT consultant I am fully aware that IT management is struggling with whether social media is productive or obstructive for companies and their employees. Software is being developed and policy and restrictions are being decided everyday by IT managers. The security of company networks are at stake but the potential for innovation using social media is a large enough carrot for the discussion of how to properly utilize the medium continues. Palo Alto networks came up with a whitepaper, http://bit.ly/d2NZRp, which will explore the issues surrounding social media in the workplace. It is important to not only understand the immediate benefits of doing business how one lives, but the threat it presents to a company's greater ROI and productivity when it comes to the server's safety and security.

Lydia on June 23, 2010 11:14 AM | Reply

I'm well outside the "college age" employees mentioned in this article (I'm over 40) but I agree. I put in much more than 8 hours every day, and if I want to check my email or renew an Rx online and an employer has strict policies against that, I'm not interested in the type of management that implements said policies.

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