When Tim Berners Lee implemented the first http communication between a client and a server on Christmas 1990 I doubt he had facebook in mind. As a matter of fact I doubt he had any idea as to how vital the internet would be to our lives today. It’s the wave of the future, scratch that. It’s the wave of the present. The internet has become such a basic commodity that the UN declared it a basic human right. Good job Mr Berners.
According to a survey carried out by Salary.com, 64% of employees visit non-work related websites every day.
Facebook is one of the most popular time-wasting social media sites, followed closely by Twitter. Google Plus has not yet gained enough traction to compete in the big leagues. Tumblr, Instagram, 9Gag and Memebase are also popular but some of them do not actually qualify as social media platforms. 39% of workers spend 1 hour a day on sites that are not work related. 50% spend no less than 2 hours while 11% squander more than 5 hours. This means that in an office of 100 workers, 39 will waste an hour, 50 will kill two and 11 will barely lift a finger for the sake of productivity.
Killing Productivity
By now I’m sure there are some employers thinking that this must be stopped. Wasting time on the internet must be what is keeping them from getting revenue, right?
Wrong.
The same study states that employers can use web filtering software to block websites notorious for slowing down productivity. Imagine a cap on all your favorite sites. There’d be nothing to do but work. Needless to say, work is the reason most people get up in the morning.
When you can’t post something on Facebook, it’s like someone cut off your oxygen supply. When you can’t Tweet, your friends think you’ve been kidnapped. If you don’t log into 9gag, you’ve wasted your time working on that useless report your boss gave you in the morning. Does this sound familiar? It can be frustrating when your boss cracks down on all your favorite web pages. Some studies have even shown that browsing non-work related sites is actually good for productivity as long as the time spent is limited.
So Now What?
If internet restrictions do more harm than good, then employers can always take the more lenient approach and offer short breaks throughout the work day. The survey, which involved 3200 respondents, states that workers are more productive when the monotony of sitting in front of a desk is broken by evenly spaced breaks.
A published article from Business 2 Community states that watching internet videos relieves stress. The article reports that a few giggles can make a work day seem less stressful. Nonetheless, an office is a place of work much like a temple is a place of prayer. A job must therefore be treated as a sacred task or at least with some pretence of seriousness.
At some point a line must be drawn to ensure that work takes precedence over leisure. After all, the bottom line of any business is making a profit. As long as the work gets done, then there’s nothing to worry about. Plus if an employee becomes a liability, he can surf the net from the comfort of a wi-fi accessible jobless corner, I hear Posta is cheap.