adminown profiles, share pictures and their thoughts with friends and spend hours online familiarising themselves with what hundreds of their friends are doing with their lives.
Indeed, Facebook has become a permanent part of many Zimbabweans’ social lives. But since most spend a lot more of their time at work, there have been great concerns that socialising online is having a negative effect on organisations’ aims and objectives.
A recent survey showed that 77 percent of workers with Facebook accounts access them at work. If a user is to spend only 30 minutes of production time accessing a social networking site, the company may lose up to 6 500 hours a year.
The amount of time workers spend on facebook varies from one person to the other but what is clear is that significant productivity time is lost when users opt to open their accounts at work.
The “chat” window on facebook is perhaps the biggest reason why users spend vast amounts of time online. It allows instant communication between and among “friends” who are logged on to the social network platform. Conversations are instantaneous and spontaneous and may take hours to conclude.
Though simply accessing accounts does not require an enormous amount of bandwidth, posting and viewing of videos does and may slow down company networks, thereby reducing the organisation’s capacity to achieve its objectives.
Heavy social networking also exposes organisations to computer virus and malware attacks. Hackers and other fraudsters are aware of the huge “subscriber base” of social networking sites and see Facebook as a perfect platform to commit fraud or launch malware attacks. These too have the potential to slow down productivity in organisations.
In addition to the above, Facebook has become more of an addiction to some users. It is not unusual for users to log in after every 15 to 30 minutes just to check their notifications or other people’s updates.
Some post several pictures or updates daily and would want to read comments, see who has “liked” what ever they upload, or respond to their friends’ reactions.
Users at work are also finding facebook to be the perfect place to go to when their becomes tedious or tiresome. Others seek fresh inspiration and guidance in respect to whatever their tasks at work are. Friends and family are now just a click away and knowing where they are or what they are doing has been made very easy.
Socialising at work is still strong, but today, it is not odd for two people sitting next to each other communicating through facebook.
One may argue that workmates, unless they turn out to be close friends, are forced acquaintances that one may find hard to relate to, where as Facebook friends are a carefully selected group with the option to “dump” is the relationship becomes unattainable along the way.
Facebook therefore offers an “escape route” from the unpleasantness of what work can sometimes become and provides a window of social interaction that ages ago, would have been available only at beerhalls, homes and other places where just about everyone had time and intend to communicate socially.
But the habit can sometimes be too much. Posts about what users have eaten, what they are wearing have become common on facebook. Others post private information, which would otherwise be more helpful if relayed only to those concerned.
Predictably, a user’s favourite subject, such as sport, religion, music or politics may force one to spend extended hours online debating or deliberating on any information that may have been presented on the network.
So what can companies do upon realising that social networking reduces chances of their success? Blocking facebook completely speaks volumes about the lack of trust employers have over their employees. The amount of freedom an employee has could have a direct impact on one’s happiness and removing social networking all together decreases the person’s control over his or her job and this consequently may make one less satisfied and more stressful at their workplace.
Additionally, blocking facebook access is not really a solution.
The availability of cheap internet on cellphones in Zimbabwe means that a person may still go online for next to nothing.
Organisations should concede that social networking is now a part and parcel of today’s society. There is no escaping the fact that social networking has now become a preferred form of interaction where people and groups meet and discuss issues that are of primary concern to them.
The general users are not the problem. Though they occasionally log in to make a comment or view what others may have posted, their actions are not driven by the sole need to find out what is going on in other people’s lives. Their actions’ impact on productivity and network security is minimal.
It is the facebook addicts that need organisations should focus on. There are now people that spend almost all their production time socialising with their friends online.
These are people that have found facebook to be the main driver for their social lives. Organisations would need to monitor their actions and, where needed, place restrictions on their Internet usage.
It is also important for employers to educate its workforce on the dangers of recurrent and persistent use facebook. This is very important. Most employees may not aware how their actions online can cause security problems for the organisation.
Employees should be aware that a simple click on a link they receive or an application they download can result in malware infecting their machine and the network.
But the most important change organisations may effect is through monitoring facebook usage and effecting changes that ensures employees retain a high degree of morale, while on the other hand guarantees that negative effects on productivity are minimal.
Online Reporter