It’s 9 am at work; coffee mugs on desks and the office seems to be on a roll as people are typing furiously on their keyboards. You and several colleagues exchange lunch plans without anyone budging or picking up the phone. The place has been decided – that new coffee shop down the road.
I present to you the wonders of technology. Who needs the phone now that there’s MSN, Adium, Velvetpuffin, etc (you can even IM on gmail). Instead of checking work emails first thing in the office, employees are logging on to IM (instant messaging) applications, poking/hugging/groping/ throwing sheep at each other on facebook (i’m not kidding, we don’t need face-face interaction anymore), or checking out photo albums on social networking sites – all in one breath. If only such talented multi-tasking skills can be effectively applied at work..
Are you guilty of the above-mentioned work crimes?
The term ‘crime’ may be a tad too harsh, but bosses are keen to clamp down on such errant computer behaviour, misuse of technology as they might put it. Is it really affecting work productivity? Has anyone taken a survey on increased productivity with decreased IMs usage? My sentiments- IMs and gang pose a certain degree of distraction, but sometimes with the drudgery of work, they also serve the part of calming nerves down. A tiny morsel of fun never kills.
Would you be upset if your workplace slaps a ban on IMs and social networking sites?
1 response so far ↓
Cranium Bash // October 3, 2007 at 6:37 am
“A tiny morsel of fun never kills.”
It snowballs and becomes hours of online activity, that is the problem of it.
“Is it really affecting work productivity? Has anyone taken a survey on increased productivity with decreased IMs usage?”
It truly is hard to say that decreased usage of IM would increase productivity, but without IM, the hours on hand could be put to good use, as an employer, if your employee does not IM has hours on hand and still does not perform, then… why the hell are you keeping him/her?