Ban facebook in office?

I think you need to resolve this issue fast, this and the constant distraction of emails came up at a recent business seminar and is becoming a real issue amongst employers. It all comes down to Business Management and more importantly, Time Management.

If its nothing to do with work then why do they use it, or why do you let them use it. There was a colleague at my last place who canstantly used social networking during working time, probably spent 30% everyday, more when the boss was out, total waster costing the company thousands a year.

Alan Sugar uses Twitter, but he checks it in the morning, luchtime and last thing, the rest of the time its off.

You could emphasize that anyone found using it during there working time will have their pay deducted or be taken to task under the misuse of equipment.

Alternatively, go with local authority and military style of working and remove the temptation, Get your IT to Block it at the server so no one can log into any site thats not relevant to the working day.

Seeing as most of the younger generation have these snazy phones that connect anyway, let them use their lunch time to use facebook, and more important, use their phone contract.

It's an interesting idea and it reminds me of the time Phone 4U banned email communication (BBC News 2003) saving an estimated

I guess a lot of it is down to the type of employees as well.

We had a temp a couple of months ago, and for the type of work she was given, you could tell if she was emailing/social networking by the flurry of activity on her keyboard.

If its low skilled/paid administration type work, then I agree, remove temptation, and if possible, put a restricted policy in place.

But if the employee is of a higher pay grade, and expected to be a self starter/motivator, then leaving free web access gives an element of trust and respect.

In reality, you should have good systems in place to be able gauge if employees are being productive or not, and if they are continually not meeting their targets or objectives, then deal with it. If unrestricted web access is the cause, then its a pretty easy fix.

Maybe reward loyal hard working staff members with unrestricted access, which should introduce a self policing slacker stigma

Allot of the issue now around banning facebook is it can be used to promote your company and by banning it you lose this option.

Try and think of it a different way and put them using facebook to your advantage

Exactly, people have enjoyed the visible difference in their increased sales and clients by promoting their business on social media like facebook. If you are also running such a marketing campaign on facebook, then its your functional requirement, how can you block it?

But if you are not using facebook for the sake of business, then you must measure if your employees are making the excessive use of facebook, if it is hurdling in the work productivity, then you must install a stern policy for that.

But if there is a possibility to see any unusual reaction, then you can opt a temperate solution, permit it during the break time only.

With the rise in smart phone,tablet and app usage to access the internet or favourite sites I don't feel a ban of Facebook from work PCs will solve this type of issue.

For me, putting company rules in place that Facebook can only be accessed during an employee's break (lunch or other) gives a comprimise. For employees that may need to access it as part of their job role, concessions such be granted. If an employee is found using FB outside of the company rules for FB usage then the rules have been broken and the appropriate action ( as set out by your company for rule breaking) should be taken.

Without having a comprimise, you may find some employees suddenly have bladder issues.......if you get my drift!

If it's not used in business purpose then there is no place for dilemma. I don't understand why is this issue for some people so complicated. Your workers are paid to do work, that is so clear. What they do in their time is their business but what they do in your time is your business. My suggestion is to block it as i block it in my company and be sure that work hours are not spent on facebook. Block it so that is left accessible on breaks, because break time is their time and you have no right to block it in their time. I do it so in my company and it's done with software. (block facebook)

I'd agree with a number of the points made already, mainly that it depends on the level of your employees and their roles - is it really going to be attractive to future employees if you're banning Facebook?

I've worked with organizations where Facebook and similar websites have been banned completely, as well as with organizations where employees have been allowed to use whatever websites they wish and personally, I feel that managers have better relationships with their employees if there is greater freedom when it comes to Facebook, etc.

However, this does depend largely on the employees and I think that's something you've got to judge yourself - if your employees are focused on the their job, are getting all of their work complete, meeting or exceeding their goals and helping to drive the company forward, is there a need to ban Facebook?

try Time Doctor software, it uses a better method than blocking websites because it only monitors websites during work hours. So team members still can use it during lunch breaks.