Internet Misuse
According to this article in Info World, Internet misuse costs business $178 billion annually. This means that employees, during working hours, are using the Internet more for personal reasons than for their actual jobs. Fifty percent of the surveyed workers admitted that they used the Internet more for personal matters at work. Among workers who reported using the Web for personal reasons the most popular activities were reading the news, checking personal e-mail, online banking, travel and shopping.
After reading this article I once remembered some business article discussing Internet filters. The article discussed that Internet filters were getting very popular in the market. Companies were buying them to prevent their employees wasting time and money at their workplaces. Are Internet filters threatening the Web's freedom?
On the other hand, internet filters are very useful for parents, who are using them in their home computers to keep their children away form pornographic and violent sites. I do not know how do these filters work, but as I go over so many Internet filters advertised on the Web, I am thinking is this a kind of censorship?
2 Comments:
Overall, I think you make a really good point that many businesses are losing out on productivity because of non-work related web surfing.
Truthfully, I don't know how you crack down on the problem. I agree that it's a shame businesses lose out on the productivity, but at the same time the web is so integral to our lives that I'm not sure filters would even work.
What if you have to research something at ESPN.com (which actually happened to me the other day - purely work related I swear). What happens if that website is blocked?
6:26 PM
When I was a supervisor at Quest, I had a slight problem with this. I had a great team, but once in a while we all slipped and just had to check the web. But it never affected productivity. The job should be demanding enough that people are working all day, and if they have time to briefly check the web, then more power to them. Those are good workers! Ultimately, it’s the supervisor that is responsible. As long as everyone is held accountable, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem from a productivity standpoint.
That being said, I’m in favor of businesses prohibiting access to personal email. This is an inconvenience for the employee but a crucial security safeguard for the business. Additionally, I think that Internet access should be granted based on your job function – if you have no business need to use it, then the employee should not be granted access. The needs of the business should take precedence with regards to Internet usage.
6:11 AM
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