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31 Aug 2007
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has urged employers to allow staff to continue to access social networking sites at work.
The TUC said that, while employers are within their rights to forbid staff from using sites such as Facebook, MySpace or Bebo in work time, a total ban is an over-reaction.
"Simply cracking down on the use of new web tools like Facebook is not a sensible solution to a problem which is only going to get bigger," said TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.
"It is unreasonable for employers to try to stop staff from having a life outside work, just because they cannot get their heads around the technology.
"Better to invest a little time in working out sensible conduct guidelines so that there do not need to be any nasty surprises for staff or employers."
The TUC's announcement follows news that 50 per cent of companies block staff access to social networking sites because of the possible impact on productivity and security.
Andrew Brown, technical manager at internet security firm SonicWall, suggested that both sides have a point but that controlling access to online content is not the problem managers seem to think it is.
"Content management systems allow threats to be excluded and web content to be accessed only when desired, for example limiting access to social networking sites to lunch breaks," he said.
"It also provides content filtering to ensure that no undesirable content is downloaded to company websites at any time."
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As a system administrator my first priority is to ensure the integrator of the business network. Site's like Facebook and MySpace (as do many sites) pose a serious threat to internal security. It's already documented that these sites are targets of spam and malware. Using the adverts feature there have been recorded incidents of users being redirected to malicious sites. This is why we've banned these sites form my work place. On top of that these sites were repeatedly appearing in log files and the amount of time spent on them was more than unreasonable. It's not a big brother approach; these sites can pose a risk to security and can be detrimental to the business.
Posted by: Phillip Dixon 03 Sep 2007
work force
what the hell are the union saying . they are suppose to be working not surfing . the union did enough damage years ago in the coal mines car factories. i know i worked in them did more harm than good now we have nothing .employers tell union to get stuffed . who is paying them . i paid union for years ended up no job .
Posted by: chas 02 Sep 2007
A ban on life?
While I understand that socializing and networking are equally important to employees during and outside of work, I do not comprehend how banning certain social networking websites equals banning "a life outside work." In my opinion, an individual should do work at work (and interact personally with co-workers, of course), and maintain a life outside of work... well, outside of work. Not to mention how social networking can downplay productivity in workplaces. Even as a student, the availability of a laptop with access to those websites such as Facebook detracts greatly from my already-short attention span and obstructs any efforts to take good notes.
Posted by: Cathy Wu 31 Aug 2007