Tuesday, September 11, 2007

UK Study: Employers Must Take 'Firm Action' to Address Facebook Use by Employees

From BBC News:

According to employment law firm Peninsula, 233 million hours are lost every month as a result of employees "wasting time" on social networking.

The study - based on a survey of 3,500 UK companies - concluded that businesses need to take firm action on the use of social networks at work.

Some firms have already banned employees from accessing Facebook.

Peninsula is a group that describes itself as "the leading Employment Law and Health and Safety Consultancy in the UK."

According to the BBC article, Britain’s Trade Union Congress has recommended guidelines that would allow workers to access the social networking sites during their breaks at work. However, the director of employment law at the firm responsible for the study argued that banning the sites all together would be easier and cheaper than “policing” employee access during the day.

See our previous post on this topic, “Is Facebook a Threat to Workplace Productivity.”

- Annie Noa Kenet, Toronto

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UPDATE: In other Facebook news today:

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Toronto Law Firm website, www.wiselaw.net

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1 comment:

philip said...

Interesting post, it reminds me that the more things change the more they stay the same.
I have an old document from Mclaren (the ad agency) from teh late 1930's where the president discouraged employees from going out for lunches, as it apparently impeded productivity upon thier return.
When I first started working in the 1980's at the Bank of Montreal, we were lectured about using the telephone for personal call's. When the web started to take hold in the late 90's, e-mail in general became the nuisance du jour. Now it's facebook. When will they realise that technology is always two years ahead of the law and by the time they have banned facebook, the next big "threat to producivity" will be in full swing.