Lack of Facebook Access Makes You Want to Quit? Grow up, Punks

Do you REALLY believe the "younger" generation is green concerned?

Think about this for one second:

Microwave ovens use Radio Freqency energy to stimulate molecules in food, which creates heat and in turn cooks the food.

Cellular phones, wi-fi, wireless, etc, use Radio Frequency to transmit and receive.  Now, even IF the cell phones are not in the same freq range as the ovens, there will still be some transfer of energy  by the RF communications to the water molecules in our atmosphere....  creating warmth.

Hmmm, global warming, where could it come from?

Now, do you think those "younger generations" will give up their environmental warmers (cell phones) so they can be green?

Simple.  Put it in force - and see what happens.  If they exit, replace them.  May be difficult sometimes - but in the end what is the culmulative cost of their activities (in lost revenue or time, etc...) vs what would it cost to cover their 'optional' resignation.  I think people may have also been talking tongue in cheek perhaps when answering this survey...  If that is the case, then the workplace is better off...  These sites are designated as Social Networking sites, and Social networking is NOT a business function.  (Perhaps with 'marketing & sales people' only, maybe...)   My first rule of thumb in this is to advise all businesses that don't have a AUP for internet, to get one.  Second - if you are just starting or setting up (expanding even) just put the URL block in.  Do it straight away.  Consultation with staff on something like this is irrelevant.  Third, cheaper to perhaps do a 'education' or training seminar for all staff (in groups if large company) and outline the first point above (AUP) and company policies... it's amazing how many people don't read policies enacted by the company they work for.

Everybody that agrees with the Ann needs to just grow old and die, Oh nevermind that is happening anyway.

Chris is right, YOU hired the wrong person if they cant have open access and not get things done. 

Could you have open access and still get things done, if the answer is yes, then why cant they.

Um... this is the dumbest debate I have ever heard.  People that waste time can do it with or without technologies.  Coffee breaks- how many people have taken longer than their allotted 15 minute break?  Have you "socially networked" with a coworker a little longer than you should have?  Have you ever used you work email for personal email during work time?  That is all time wasted...

So people who sound so holier than thou:

"I dont think that anyone would ever be considered a good worker if they spent much of the time that they were supposed to be working wasting away on facebook." "How can employees using facebook at work, talking about what they were up to at the weekend assist their company in anyway."

-I want to see your timesheet and confirm you have 0 hours allocated overhead and get sworn testimony that you only take your 15 minute breaks, you are never late, and you are 100% productive for the company 100% of the time.

And on the other hand for the people that make the case that facebook is a valid business function.  I am not convinced.

My whole point is that all of this comes back to the employee and their quality output.  We are humans and I sure as heck can't work all day without a little escape to facebook every now and then.  People work differently and we are not robots- we need to find ways to connect with others.  Some people do that talking face to face and others do it virtually.

Lastly there is an assumption that employees who spend their time socializing and "wasting company time" are actually doing it on the company dime.  On days I spend a little too much time on the internet or facebook, I stay longer to make up for it.  I think it is a case where the company needs to set the expectations about what types of behavior are acceptable and which are not.  Almost all companies have acceptable use policies that allow for some personal use of company resources.

I am chortling with great amusement ... "When technologies like facebook ..." Facebook is NOT a technology, it is an implementation of Web-based technologies, and as one poster rightly pointed out, it is a social networking Web implementation.

Insofar as the stretch of "maybe for sales and marketing" employees, I have yet to find redeeming business value in Facebook. Believe me, I'm a techno-geek, and my company thrives on leveraging Internet-based business solutions. So if there was one to be had in Facebook, we'd jump on it.

Facebook is a business-place time sink. Period. Lost productivity means money to a business. Rather than blocking or other business-place means of precluding Facebook, do this: monitor their Internet usage (most businesses of size do) and dock their pay for perusing sites such as Facebook.

Now there's a price attached to their bad work habits.

Econ 101 would tell you that labor is just another market. If these people have the wherewithal to make their demands stick, regardless of what they are, then they will get what they want.

You can try to enforce the "no facebook" condition on an entire generation, but you may find yourself with inadequate or untalented staffing vs. your competitors.

I can't believe how many people try argueing the value of these social programs in a workplace enviroment. Give me a friggin break, that's the biggest BS I've ever read, I mean really, who the hell uses facebook for anything but screwing around with your "buddies"! And to compare it to when we first got the internet! Not even close! I challenge you to list me some actual concrete uses for facebook in a workplace? Better communication? Nice try, but we all know that a simple internal IM program would do wonders, no need for facebook. Social networking is a business function? Yes it is but to try to stretch that to fit Facebook is just non-sense, you're not going to be putting "I'm having a programming problem X, any ideas?" on facebook, that's just non-sense. You can say that all you want but in reality, even IF an odd person did use it that way, that's not how the majority will/would use it. Facebook, Myspace or any of those have ZERO use in a business enviroment, should be blocked asap.

I would maintain that I can find adequate and talented developers and programmers without social networking addictions existing in the workplace. In fact, I have them now ... and I guarantee we can outperform any shop in which non-productive timesinks such as Facebook exists.

It's very simple. People should be expected to behave ethically and professionally in an office or work environment of any kind. Does checking in on Facebook now and then violate that in any way? Not really. Does spending 3 hours staring at it, clicking around and doing 'whatever it is people do' on Facebook for an afternoon violate that - YES. There needs to be some accommodation in an office for communication - especially in some offices where there is no 'water cooler' or 'social interaction' but as with anything else, if someone abuses that - they should be dealt with accordingly. Why punish those who behave like professionals preemptively for the irresponsible nature of more inexperienced workers?

Take the opportunity to understand this generation.  For years, people have been wasting time in their cubicles making rubber-band balls and throwing basketballs into little hoops.  At least this generation is networking and maybe even promoting the company and business online.  Stop thinking like slave-owners and start thinking like leaders.

I refuse to work for a company that has ban-happy management. Too many bosses aspire to the role of a middle-school principal.

But I guess that's what happens when most Americans only have aspirations to be in charge of someone else. Run from these kinds of bosses.

Realize that you are a commodity, find an employer that will treat you as such, and let some other sucker like Anne All work under a shitty middle management team.

So, do you want to whine about it, or do you want to keep us working for you?

Eoghan  you are an idiot, pick up a physics book and quit spouting conspiracy theory rhetoric. I would suspect that "top talent" isn't to be found in the 39% willing to perhaps quit over myspace blocking. And it is that person is probably bright but better off as an entrepreneur anyway, being so independently spirited. Again Eoghan get some education. Please.

While I'm of the appropriate age group, I'm not into the Facebook phenomenon.  However, I am opposed to the idea of blocking web content, regardless of the usage.  For instance: I work for a government research facility.  One day recently, the brilliant minds that control our IT systems decided to filter Wikipedia under the category of "Education".  I understand that Wikipedia can be a tremendous time sink, but to block the access of "Educational" sites from a research center?  It's my belief (and I don't seek to force others to accept it) that using censorship in the name of productivity is a flawed system.

How many of you are wasting time at work reading and contributing to this blog?

As one of the "Punks"  I agree that this is a generational, outdated mindset that doesn't bode well with young tech-savvy employees. It's not a perk, it's an extension of our extremely wired lives that we've grown up with. Sure, Suzy in marketing probably doesn't need to be on facebook or myspace all day, if she is you shouldn't have hired her.

In my case I work in the web dept. of a fortune 500 company. I churn out extremely complex web work that said company is betting big fortunes on in the future. Heck, we even have a facebook app we built on the side to gain eyeballs. If I couldn't check out facebook (often for research of ideas, not leisure), shoot a twitter update to my wired friends, try out the latest beta site... basically have unfettered internet access, I would question my employers desire to be truly competitive in the marketplace, both in the tech space and in retaining people who "get it" which in my experience is largely the "kids" and "punks" who grew up with it. You do realize that Facebook is ran by a bunch of under-30s, and they are all likely worth way more than your company will ever be. My advice is embrace the punks if you want to be around in 10 years, especially if your business has anything to do with the Internet.

Generation gaps strike again.  I'm 26 and will play the role of gen x diplomat for the time, here's what you need to know:  College taught me how to work - feverishly fast, efficient, detailed and did I mention fast?  Fast doesn't imply sloppily, it means I did good work fast.  I wanted to learn, get good grades, and spend time with friends, so I did the work as well and fast as possible so I could socialize.  I take the same attitude to the corporate world, but there's a problem, I can only work my butt off for so long before I need to relax.  "I just finished the amout of work someone else would do in an entire day over the couse of 3 hours?"  Great.  Now I'm going to give my brain a rest for a bit and do it again all afternoon.  So how do I relax?  Well, cross-world puzzles, water coolers, BSing with the boss for an hour strait or writing blogs about "kids these days" doesn't amuse me.  So I'm going to go talk to my friends on facebook or gmail.  The idea of stretching my work out across the whole day is foreign to me, I'd rather just do it and get it done.  If my company took the internet away it'd be hard for me to regroup between fits of hyper-work.  I'd go somewhere else.

Ok, I agree that Facebook is a huge time-waster in general, and particularly so in the context of one's office. As one of the "younger generation" I can't say I would consider leaving a job over lack of Facebook access, but I would certainly be annoyed.

And my annoyance would have nothing to do with my inability to use Facebook. My annoyance would be with the company's inherent distrust in my ability to accomplish my work. In this case, their assumption goes to the extreme in blocking my access to something that may pay off for them in the long run. If a 10 minute Facebook break gives an employee a boost for several solid hours of productivity (or a reward after one), those 10 minutes were a wise investment on the company's part.

And come on -- network performance? There are very, very few circumstances under which even a large number of Facebook users could noticeably impact a corporate network. That's just unfeasible. I'll note that the author failed to cite that particular claim. YouTube, maybe. Hulu, definitely. Facebook, not so much.

There is a major disconnect between the younger and older generations when it comes to some of the 21st century internet fads. I am personally not a facebook user but what is the difference between someone using facebook as opposed to smokers who regularly take 3 - 4 15 minute smoking breaks a day. The bottom line is if you are not able to be productive regardless off what distractions are available to you then you are not a professional and deserve to be let go.

The latest generation of workers(the 18-25 crowd) is known for their dismissive attitude when it comes to work. I'm not saying everyone is in that category but I've seen that kind of behavior all too often in the workplace. These kids aren't being paid poorly either(at least in professional IT) considering their relative lack of experience and age.

I'd say to these kids that having a well paying job is a privilege and not a right, these days and until recently because of the shortage of younger workers, many companies have been very lenient with this age group when it comes to their attitude. They've never lived through a recession in their own lifetimes and where every penny counts to survive and not lose your house!

Socializing(unless you're in sales or PR) isn't a part of the job description, neither is online shopping on your company's time, I can understand slow periods where all the work is done and taking a 15-20 min break is fine but demanding Facebook access as an employee's right is ludicrous, to say the least.

I think a lot of youngsters will learn the hard way that jobs and money doesn't grow on trees and their is a large and well educated workforce outside of the West, which is willing to work and take their jobs away.

I'm not sure this would shake them out of their prima donna attitudes but a good butt kicking may wake them up!

One thing people like bmm and Rob don't seem to get is efficiency. Blocking web access in a job that requires web access is just weird. Trust me. I work for an internet services company and many of the people in upper management don't even understand how the internet works.

They don't trust their employees, either. For years several of us in key positions have been talking about the need to support all kinds of social networking and Web 2.0 ideas and we've been met with blank stares. It took an outside professional, that they paid way too much money for, to get them to realize that blogging just might be more than a "fad."

The other issue is with time based reward systems. A lot of "old school" business people look at overtime sheets and say, "Wow! This guy works a lot of overtime. He must be a great employee." That's nonsense. What it means is that employee can't get his work done in the time allotted. If I can be just as productive, in a shorter amount of time, that makes me more efficient. You get what you want faster, which means I can be more productive. What's the problem with taking a break to cruise Facebook or anything else for a few minutes?

Oh, yea. You're still confusing productivity with time spent on an activity. Enjoy your inefficient company culture, dinosaurs.

I quit the military because of Facebook.

Companies need to keep up with the times.  I don't use facebook, but my company used to block access to web mail (gmail, yahoo, etc).  Eventually my company got smart and realized that to stay competitive and draw the best talent, they needed to grant their employees access to modern communication.  Would you work for a company that didn't allow calls from your spouse to discuss dinner plans?  I'm sure companies like that existed (that's "existed" past tense).

I think you are a crone. Why with the technology at hand cant people integrate their working and personal lives? We are expected to take work home why cant we take home to work as well? You are missing the blurring lines between different aspects of our lives as technology bridges those gaps. Oh yeah, oil crisis? Telecommute, duh.... I swear the people in control are blind wasting all that time and money on fuel alternatives when the answer is glowing in their oblivious faces...

BTW Im 37

George you can count my 2 comments on that list.

Yep, you were right the first time. You are a crone. It should be pretty easy for a company to figure out if an employee is not being productive, regardless of the reason. I would never hang around at a company playing the Big Brother game. If anything it would be a stop-gap job as I was wasting most of my time on Dice.com.

"Perhaps next time they are looking for a job mommy can come and help them interview too . Mommy will also explain why they need their FaceBook time too."

Nope, thanks to things like facebook I'm very well networked in the IT world.  Resume's and interviews?  Aren't those for people the company doesn't already know?

I wonder how much time was wasted by reading and posting comments to this article? Stay off of ibusinessedge.com at work.

I don't view this as an issue of "omg i need to post on my friend's wall". It's "wow, my employer is policing me". Blocking sites isn't much better than monitoring bathroom use.

Blocking Facebook is simply a symptom of a place you don't want to work, not the immediate reason to resign.

Trust > Control.

While I agree that facebook should be left out of the workplace for productivity concerns, it is illogical to generalize all teenagers and twenty-somethings as "punks".  I am 24 and I have a facebook account. It has been blocked in my workplace since day 1 as well as other websites that I visit. Not once have I ever considered leaving my job because of blocked internet access. If someone leaves a job because of such, they are working there for the wrong reasons.

Also, I would love to see the numbers you crunched for your survey "results." 16 % of what population would leave a job because it blocked facebook? What type of job do they possess? Get your facts together and then write a sensible blog, Ann.

Business is based on relationships. Facebook is all about relationships. Saying that Facebook offers nothing to business is not only naive, but stupid and shows that you know nothing about business in the first place.

Work & life have merged into one in the IT world. We get called at home to work, so it's natural to do personal stuff at work. I see no distinction between the two and most young people don't either.

You can ban these at your workplace and those same kids will leave and create a new startup that will eventually crush you and your business.

Uh...read any survey about how much "work" people actually perform during the day. Go back a few years and look at the same data. The numbers are pretty stable. So the whining is laughable. Does it matter if people spend 30% of their time pretending to work or looking at facebook?

Will they really quit? probably not.  I hope all the "this young generation, they're not like us hard working older folks" crap isn't being written during work hours my friends. Ah...of course it is.

Just one small obvious problem here...since all of the bad behavior can now be done easily on cell phones, this article/troll is already obsolete. But we took the bait so good job Methuselah.

So apparently, young and talented workers do NOT access facebook on a regular basis? Hmm. That is a revelation.

"So, do you access facebook on a regular basis?

  You do?

  I'm sorry but we can't hire you. It's a blocked website.

  You may quit within a month. We're looking for a long-

  term employee. Good luck "punk."

Hey, notice most of you posted a comment on a blog post during the 9-5 hours?  How is this any less social than Facebook?

39% want to Quit if their company BLOCKED access to Facebook...

This Telindus report shows that 39% of young workers (19-24) would consider quitting their job if their employer blocked access to Facebook at work. Another 21% would be annoyed. Ann All's reaction is Grow up, Punks. I completely disagree. I'm 35, no...

Okay, you can take my FaceBook, but I'm not giving up my LinkedIn! Oh wait, I have a phone, a Palm, and a laptop with web access with me all the time. Never mind!

- 51-year-old punk, and proud of it -

What really sucks is when flickr is blocked.

So many sites, blogs, tutorials, etc use images hosted on flickr. So, yes, that does impact my work at times.

Likewise youtube. Often there are work-related things on there - talks about Java etc.

Also, blocking gmail really sucks - but at least there's gmaillite to get around that problem.

Hey Ann, How would you feel if they told you that you couldn't use your cellphone or your workphone during work hours no matter what? Even if it's an emergency?

Believe it or not, some of us actually receive important messages on Facebook, but I'm sure you'll say that's a different scenario.

I wrote an official response to your article here:

http://reversd.com/senior-citizen-discount-here/

Why is it that the older generation believes the longer you work the more valuable an asset you are?  This type of mentality just isn't going to work well with the "punk" generation, simply because we have always been taught "quality, not quantity."  In every job I have had, I manage to get the work done to a better degree of quality and at least 3 to 4 times faster than the "old folks."  In fact, I'm not lying when I say that I have been told by my managers that although my work is much better than they could have done, I need to go slower.  The only thing I have concluded from those statements is that the "old folks" are embarassed that a "punk" like me can do the same amount of work, better quality, and faster than they can do it.  So if I'm done with my work - the work that the "geezers" would still be working on - why can't I have a little down time?

In my opinion, the issue is not about Facebook or MySpace; rather the fact that big brother is watching us.  While may not be as old as you, I'm still an adult.  I demand the respect and trust that you would give to anyone else, so why do I need to be babysat by a program limiting what I can and cannot do?  I wouldn't quit over Facebook, but I would consider quitting because the company doesn't trust me. 

I work to live, I don't live to work.

@AnotherPunk: The desision to block it would mostly be based on the majority of employees, which tend to be untrustworthy. I heard somewhere that the average office employee does 2 - 3 hours or "real" work a day.

Anyone who attempts to use the useless-to-business Facebook at work should be terminated.

Let these young kids learn the hard way:  Noone cares about you, your 'social network', nor your self esteem.

Get back to work and do something, ya brats.

I wouldn't work anywhere that filtered the internet period. In order to do my job, I need the entire internet. Not just the parts white listed by some IT guy in a basement somewhere.

Also, Facebook usage slowing down the network? You're kidding, right?

It generally isn't the IT guys that make the decision to block (insert, whatever your PHB read he should block this week in an issue of Managing for Morons magazine, here).  It's some out of touch amateur golfer/thespian in mid to upper management.  So, please stop blaming the 'IT Guys' - it's generally not our fault.

Dear all,

You have made me dumber by reading this article and your argumentative comments.

All of you should grow old and die, now. Except the guy who did this: http://reversd.com/senior-citizen-discount-here/

You're cool.

My 16 year old son laughed at this article. He thinks the people surveyed were having a lend of the researchers out of a sense of frustration with their working lives.

I suspect most would be too lazy anyway to find another job just because they couldn't get Facebook access.

While I agree with you on the "growing up" bit, I take exception to this:

"...heavy Facebook usage can slow network performance."

I seriously, seriously doubt that you're being serious here. This is 2008, not 1998.

Lack of Facebook Access Makes You Want to Quit? Grow up, Punks...

What would make you quit your job? Lack of insurance or other benefits? A lengthy and expensive commute? Limited advancement opportunities? No Facebook access? A recent survey by IT services provider Telindus found that a whopping 39 percent of 18-to-...

@Eoghan

Actually, the conspiracy is in the propogation of the Global Warming myth. Think about: candle use plummeted once electricity and the lightbulb were invented. People worldwide stopped adding heat to the atmosphere when they switched to the new and much brighter means of lighting. Oh, and and in the decrease of pirates over the last 20-30 decades, and you can't help but recognize the relationship.

The more you know...do-do-do-doooooo.

At my previous workplace, a number of people did quit when facebook was blocked.  They spent the entire day on it and even when they were on customer calls they would flip back to it.

I resisted MSN, escaped the clutches of Myspace and I'm going to resist Facebook, no matter how many emails/invites I get, there's far better things to  do, like actually talking to your work colleagues sitting next to you.

Business time is for business only. People should not be able to read the news if it is not directly business related. Workers should not be able to talk to each other about topics that are not strictly business related. Capitalists Unite!

Okay I'm 21 Years Old And Never Would I Leave a Job Because Facbook Of All Sites Would Be Banned, And You Shouldn't Blame The Younger Generation Partially For Global Warming Because I Do Believe That People Outside That Spectrum Also Use Cell Phones And Other Radio Frequency Transmitting Devices.

It's only a matter of time before Facebook and other social media tools hit mainstream in the workforce.  I manage several ecommerce stores and marketing campaigns and I've seen success using Facebook, Twitter, Birghtkite and FriendFeed when marketing products and services.  If you want your product, brand or campaign to go viral these tools are essential.

You know it's a different world when Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has a Facebook profile. I'm sure he's just doing nothing important when he's on Facebook. 

If companies close their eyes and turn their heads to social media they will miss out on the business opportunities that are out there in the social media world.

There really is a disconnect between the generations in terms of perspective.  In the case of quitting one's job because Facebook is blocked, it isn't really that clear-cut and simple.

It isn't the block that concerns them.  Imagine you're going to work every day, get there on time, perform beyond what's asked of you, etc.  Now, imagine there are some 'problem employees' that keep taking too many breaks for coffee.  These problem employees are costing the company and hurting their bottom line.

There are two solutions immediately available.  Option 1:    Identify and discipline the employees who's performance is sub-standard.  This solution will require effort on the part of management and human resources.  It will take time and cost money.  Option 2:   Close and lock the break room door.  This solution will require almost no effort whatsoever on the part of management and human resources, nor will it require any time or money.

How would you feel about your employer if they chose option number 2?  Why are YOU being grouped with the problem employees?   Blocking everyone's access to a web page is Option 2.  Shouldn't management and human resources be expected to do their jobs without resorting to short-cuts that could cost the company money in the long term?  The last time I checked, it was literally in the job descriptions for HR reps and managers to identify and discipline problem employees.  Should they also be expected to perform their job duties?  It costs an enormous amount of money to keep replacing employees when their overall satisfaction with their work environment begins to decline.

Blocking a popular website isn't the problem.  It's just one of many pieces that add up to an employee being less satisfied with their working environment.  Let these pieces add up and the employees will begin finding other jobs.  Nobody is going to get up out of their chair and walk out when the site is blocked but that doesn't indicate they won't leave.

1) Studying economics you learn that life is all about signaling.  When you drive a new car off a lot and it looses 10000$ in value its a signaling issue.  Why would some one sell a brand new car unless there was something seriously wrong with it? Signaling is also the reason that people learn very little practical information that will help them right a way in a job.  It simply signals to employers that you are smart and capable of working very hard.  Thus the issue is not Facebook, its not like most people are so addicted to Facebook that they need to open rehab clinics.  The problem is that it signals to employees that the company is will to try and control your life, does not trust you, and maybe most importantly fears things it does not fully understand or comprehend.  There are hundreds of ways to waste time at work and you can not ban them all just like you can not expect the vast majority of workers to work 8 straight hours with out breaks.  It is not Facebook that is making people want to quit its the signal that banning peoples freedoms sends that makes people want to quit.

2) Companies that hire abroad do so because it is cheaper for them.  Outsourcing is done become IT people in India will work for way cheaper than people in the US.  That price difference is not do to just relative productivity.  For one I have no reason to believe that Indian IT workers are any more productive than American workers.  There are web 2.0 apps all over the world and they are probably just as likely to use social networking sites as an American IT worker (not the Indian populace as a whole jus the IT workers).  What does drive up American wages is the cost of living in the US and the many labor laws that exist here that do not in India, and the fact that a dollar in India goes much further much further in developing countries than it does here.

3) The people so fervently against this need to not look at this from the perspective of time wasting and see that it is just like any other technological innovation and stop being scared of it.  That is what all this is its fear, so many of the posts have been about how you are not sure of what people could possibly need to on facebook that they can not do using already established things.  You do not understand that I would rather use facebook over email of the phone.  Or that using facebook does not make it so that I can not socialize with my coworkers who are around me. It is simply something new that you do not understand and are afraid to embrace, and that fear of change may leave you in the dust in the future.

4) Lastly, at what age to you start pretending that you never did anything when you were a 20somthing.  The odds are that all of these people who are opposed to this stuff lived there 20s between 1960-1990, and I can think of a lot of wild stuff that you could have been apart of and a lot of innovations that you were excited about that I am sure your bosses where against.  It is hypocritical to pretend that you were never young and that you were some kind of machine worker who was only concerned about the companys bottom line and productivity.  There is no way that is true its part of being a 20something.

This is bogus and untrue. 98% of employers have FB blocked and have you EVER heard of ANYONE leaving because of it? NO!

More importantly, this survey is flawed because most people who have professional jobs in which they would be on a computer all day graduate from college and college grads are between the ages of 21 and 24 .

This survey looked at kids 18 to 24. That means that HALF of the population (18-21) they surveyed have never even had real job experience to say whether they would or wouldnt leave because FB was blocked (and if they did say it it was probably asked in the context of "would you be upset if you couldnt go on fb?").

Of course, if the author wanted to create accurate results of young professionals opinions (which is the point here isnt it?) then they should've surveyed people in the work force age range.

I guarantee that they would find drastically different results, because people in the work force realize the importance and seriousness involved in the security of a job (ie the responses in this thread).  I dont know anyone who would be so dumb to say they would leave a job because it doesnt have FB.

Did NOT already block Fb rather

I think you have to ask what's of value to young people.  They're not big earners yet so probably what they value is their social life.  Personally I wouldn't be seen dead on any site you have to log-in to to see but if people want to exist in social cliques that's their lot.  It has to be said you wouldn't sit reading a book at work so why do people think it's okay to spend hours on facebook.  It's do do with trust really - if people didn't abuse the trust more employers wouldn't ban internet sites.   That said ultimately, banning websites is a very lazy way of managing employees and has a lot more to do with staff retention than productivity.  What we need is not employers who errect firewalls but employers who take a leaf out of Sir Alan's book and say "you're fired" more often...which is actually very easy in the first two years of someone's employment if they're not a worker.  There's also and elmenet of "stop people socialising with people outside the workplace and they wont know there are places where life is better" to banning websites which is rather sinister.  I've regularly had to hack my company firewalls to access computer programming sites (for work reasons) that are blocked because they fall not into the category of pornography or social networking but "education"?  If I nag the IT department they will reconfigure the firewall but who can be bothered?  It's easier to just bypass the whole thing and not tell them.  I mean banning "It Education"?  No, you wouldn't want people on the shop floor doing their own IT ... The IT industry wouldn't be able to keep themselves in work .... Combine this with a culture of constantly trying to get your employees to sign new contracts which define everything from picking your nose to emailing a friend as "serious misconduct punishable by dismissal" and it's all a bit sad when when it comes down to it most managers still shy away from firing those who don't perform because they're too worried about being unpopular and too worried about staff retention...  Making the contracts actually pretty worthless as unless you can show that terms are enforced for everyone when you do fire someone and they take you down the tribunal they can say "everyone else does it - you're victimising me".  Madness.

@Mary, I am almost 47, and I'm on facebook, so wind your head in!

@BillyBee : For those of use who use FB, finding another job is easy! Good luck on finding a replacement who is actually as competent and productive as we are with our social networking!

I am one of those who has considered quitting a job over lack of access to social networking sites. I ended up not quitting because my employer offered me more money and returned my access.

You old  fuddy-duddies  need to understand, such access is the modern equivalent to the phone or email.   How many people would stay in a job these days if they were unable to use phone or email?  

I find it strange calling some-one ten or more years my junior such as yourself an old fuddy-duddy, but that's basically what you guys are being in this instance. 

As far as corporate IT is concerned, most youngsters know more about technology than they do. If corporate IT does not allow access, workers will just figure out ways around corporate IT, and your computers will be being connected to external wireless  networks without your knowledge.

That's what I do when ever I work on a site that has network restrictions, there's usually some free wi-fi around, or if I really have to, I use my cell phone's data plan. 

What would corporate IT prefer? Unrestricted uncontrolled access to their systems via wi-fi or phone internet not going through their firewall, or allowing people to do what they should be allowed to do by any reasonable employer in a  way you can control if necessary?

So, pointy-haired bosses, get with the program or p|-|34r t3|-| 1337 5|

As a member of this blog's defined "punk" population, I found your thoughts interesting and inspiring.

Ill agree that Facebook offers little the average worker can use for work.  I basically sign on for three reasons during work hours: to read newfeeds on friends, to write responses to wall posts, and to scrutinize recently posted pictures and promptly untag if embarrassing/hideous.

BUT I believe there is an indirect benefit to my employers.  Reading, writing, and scrutinizing with immediacy, attention to detail, and entertaining value - these activities are not kept exclusive to socializing but they cross right over into job skills when processing information regarding business, responding to co-worker or client emails, and determining what looks good to the public eye.

I was inspired to expand upon this opposing argument to your blog in my own blog titled: "A Punk's View of Facebook" (http://entrequest.com/Truby-blog/index.php/2008/06/16/a-punks-view-of-facebook/).

Thanks for starting the discussion!

- A Punk named Kristen

More than a Face-book vs coffee-break debate, I see this as a fascinating face-off of world view.

Old or young, there are slackers and there are performers.  High performance does not mean working continuously like a machine.   Neither is everyone who takes frequent breaks (literally or virtually) a genius who produces a week's work in an hour.

Good leadership will accommodate individual needs within the bounds of company objectives - for after all, what is a company but a group of people?  

How many hours you put in doesn't matter as much as what you put in those hours.   So put in rules about facebook or any new stuff that comes out - simple rules we try to follow in our daily lives - no hate mail, porn, etc.. and measure the people by output, not by time alone.

Thats because 99% of companies measure activity when the focus should be on OUTCOMES...

When you have a poor management system in place you need to crack down on "distractions" this is a an inssue within organizations not from the bottom up, but from the top down...

-Jerm

http://www.entrequest.com/truby.html

I support at workplace this access must be provided but for  little time may be during tea breaks etc.Though no doubt it plays with the security of organisation to some extent acess must be allowed.

People who talk about security holes should perhaps cogitate on the fact that you can now plug a mobile directly into a USB port giving you immediate unrestritcted access to the internet (okay, it's a bit slow) ...so ... if you errect a draconian firewall this is what people will do.  As soon as they do this the practical use of a firewall to protect the company from hackers and viruses is instantly disabled.  If you make a system too restrictive people will simply bypass it completely...  Which undermines the point and effectiveness of it.

Bandwidth is definately an issue - particularly with video/audio streaming.

Why quit when you could have moderate access. Here are instructions for how to access Facebook at work if it is being blocked http://www.blakebrannon.com/2008/09/03/howto-facebook-at-work/

oddly enough we've run into some of these 'punks' and we showed them the door. There is always some argument about what the next 'have to have' business enabler out there is and whether corporate should embrace it. Each company has to review this on a case by case basis.

For us, we reviewed the facebook useage and 97% of it was personal use. We don't pay $4k/month internet fees for you to play so it was gone. The guys on the C-level only care about 1 thing. $$$ and when its being wasted on social networks, then social networks go away. Go ahead and leave, just like a dog - when you get hungry you'll eat the corporate dog food.

You do realize that these systems of communication were made popular by older generations right?  It created a business advantage and the start of globalization.

"Younger generations" giving them up would be the worst decision they could ever make in such a competitive world we live in now.

The "Going Green" movement is not even related to this article, but the point you brought up is ridiculous and hardly possible (sadly in my opinion) in this day and age.

On topic: No Facebook at work.  I know some hard working individuals who would gladly take the jobs of those whining people from the survey.

I'm not so sure the word 'punks' is appropriate.  I'd prefer 'spoiled brats' as I think it is a bit more accurate.  That being said, it does concern me that when things like this come out, too many people just assume everyone of that age fits in that category.  This is what prejudice or pre-judgment means, after all.  Look at the flip side of it.  Out of the large group of 18-24 year olds (and that is significant as one would hardly expect someone just out of high school to be terribly similar to someone a few years out of college) only 4 of 10 hold this feeling.  This still means 6 of 10 disagree.  And I'm willing to bet (a small sum at least) that the feeling is more prevalent in the younger of the segment.  That is, graduating college and entering the workforce, especially in today's economy, will gradually take the highly unrealistic and spoiled expectations away.  Instead of overreacting to it, why not wait and see how they feel a year or two down the line?  After all, who is the same person at 18, 25, 32, 48, etc., etc.?  More contact with the real world will pretty much lead to 'growing up.'  At least, until they rule the world, then who knows?  We may have more 'google oriented environments' for our workplaces.  But it isn't going to happen overnight.  Right now, demanding access to facebook on your work computer gets you called 'spoiled' or a 'brat' or the like.  And since that isn't likely to change anytime soon, the younger workers will have to change themselves for the time being.  Somethings gotta give, after all.  I wouldn't worry about it too terribly much.  And if you are worried, then target high schools and make them what they were intended to be in the first place--education for the real world for those not going on to college, and for those going to college, enough education and real world prep to keep you from being as immature as you were in kindergarten.