Is Facebook Killing Your Business?
At a CEO breakfast a few days ago, a business owner expressed frustration with Facebook. He said that many of his employees were spending too much of their work day on Facebook and asked us for some ideas on how he might rectify this problem. Most of the ideas involved monitoring of employees’ Internet usage, while a few questioned whether they weren’t actually on Facebook working. My favorite, though, was from a past NY Report contributor (who I won’t mention by name), who said, and I paraphrase, “if my employees have time to spend on sites like Facebook, then I’m not doing my job. They clearly don't have enough work to do, or definitive goals."
I agree with your nameless quotation - blame management
If an employee is consistently late - you deal with the individual
If an employee exhibits poor work behaviors of any kind, you deal with the individual.
Supervisor 101 :-)
Posted by: Elliot Ross | January 14, 2009 at 12:11 PM
Facebook itself is not the problem. From minesweeper to excessive phone use, an employee who is not motivated will find a way not work. In the alternative, this unnamed business owner should find ways to use Facebook to leverage his/her employees contacts to obtain more business.
Posted by: Fred Abramson | January 16, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Well, depending on the business, maybe the owner can have their employee (who's on Fbook frequently) create a facebook group/business page to promote the company and products/services. Then put them in charge of promoting the business via Facebook. I've attended 2 fundraisers, 2 grand-openings, 3 networking events and 1 conference as a result of Facebook networking.
An employee who is constantly on FaceBook should have an explanation or some results from it--otherwise it's idle time on company's money. They might as well have Facebook mobile and interact on their own time.
Posted by: Cheryl | January 20, 2009 at 03:11 PM
Funny you should ask, I just ran into this software called RescueTime which monitors use of time on computers by application.
It seems to be geared towards people keeping track of their OWN usage but there are group or company versions too I believe:
http://www.rescuetime.com
Best
Deborah Elms
www.ImprintedOriginals.com
High Visibility Made Easy for Trade Shows and Events
Posted by: Deborah Elms | February 05, 2009 at 05:30 PM