The unofficial Facebook-blocking pool
There are 1,163 CBC employees and regular freelancers who have accounts on Facebook as of today. That’s about 12% of the CBC’s workforce, including Radio-Canada.
Today, IT security firm Sophos said that 50 percent of workers are being blocked from accessing Facebook by their employers who are worried about the website’s impact on productivity and security, and have therefore put policies or access controls in place to ban its use in the workplace.
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IT departments “are worried about the website’s impact on productivity and security”??? Why then not block the whole internet then??? Seriously, if you’re not a journalist at the CBC what websites do you NEED to do your job if you work here? We’ve got Groupwise, so bye bye gmail-hotmail-yahoo-whatever.com… and the intranet is supposed to have all our work critical information right at our fingertips! What next? Are they coming to get rid of the magazines on my desk too???
I am glad I have the opportunity to be self-employed. I could not see myself working for any company/corporation that censors what I can and cannot do on the Internet. What ever happed to a happy employee is a productive employee? Some of the most creative ideas developed on the net are coming from employees of Google. Do your really think Google is blocking their employees from accessing any content on the net. We have all heard this story before, it started with browsing, then email, ICQ/MSN, and now it is social networks. Whats next?
What kind of magazines are on your desk, surf, and why are they there?
Whether Cosmo or Harper’s, the message to your co-workers is that your commitment to the work is less than theirs.
But never give up your right to be lazy and looking for distractions from what you’re being paid to do.
And your self-employment, Mr. Edward, must be a solo operation, because if you had a staff working at terminals, you’d not only want to know what they were looking at, but listening to yourself announcing “rules”.
Just so you now many of the CTV personalities use Facebook to generate opinion, attention, and relevance. David Akin is one particular Facebook friend who I find is active on Facebook and have even mailed his friends list asking for sound bites for stories.
To that end when the use is proper social networking sites such as Facebook, Linkedin, etc can be powerful tools! That said the average administrative assistant using it might not help with productivity but also could help in communicating with other CBC employees.
My thoughts are simply this. The CBC does not believe in censorship – as far as I know – so why would they participate in it by blocking sites like Facebook. It should be the onus of the supervisors/managers to ensure that employees are getting their work done and if “I” (speaking as if I worked there) wanted to take a 10 min mental break to surf Facebook, gmail, or my brothers blog, I should be able to do so without fear of getting in any kind of trouble. That said, it is the responsibility of the employee to understand this is a perk to having net access at work. Finally! a happy employee is a productive one and filtering sites in the workplace typically only frustrates and annoys employees causing a decrease in productivity. No one can work 110% all day long, you need that non-work distraction every now and then.
I could go on but the fact this comment is already longer than the original post means I should stop. Keep up the good work Tod, I enjoy reading it.
hey tod,
just curious if you find issues with the majik widget polls since they only allow one reply per IP address – just wondering how that’s working inside the corp environment.
-r
I believe CBC blocked YouTube for a while for this reason, but later unblocked it when it became clear that there are legitimate reasons to use this sort of internet content at work. CBC already has rules for disciplining people who goof off – enforce those instead of creating some arbitrary technological solution that’ll instantly be out of date.
Many companies now realize that adding some fun time to the day can INCREASE productivity. That’s why computer companies offer pool tables and video games– even gyms. Using Facebook at work can keep you at work even longer and give you a mental break from the day.
No time to surf… says, “… if you’re not a journalist at the CBC what websites do you NEED to do your job…”. Really? And Toronto is the centre of the universe too I suppose. You need to get out of your cubicle and take a walk around this place from time to time. There are many positions here that require access to the internet besides journalists. Engineering and technical staff use the internet to research equipment, keep up with technology advances, acquire online service and user manuals, download software and firmware upgrades, to name just a few. ENG crews use online resources such as Google Maps and MapBlast to locate shoot locations and services and facilities in areas they work in as well as keeping abreast of the latest in ENG methods and technology. Trainers use the internet to … well, as you see … I could go on … and on ….
Take some time and get to know the folks behind the scenes who help make all this happen.
Actually, I don’t live in Toronto and hopefully never will. Nice to know you’re not a journalistTechie… all this assuming and jumping to conclusions…
And secondly, it’s called sarcasm. I’m not a journalist either but I do work at the CBC and use the net all the time for my job.
And to clarify, there are no magazines on my desk, but perhaps the casual book (gasp- i like to read during my lunch hour, the one that i usually take at my desk)- and why assume Cosmo dear Allan? Maybe I was talking about The Economist…or the New York Post.