The battle over social media usage at the office continues, as social media manages to become more prevalent in business use, and more widespread for its user base. Between high adoption rates and its use for marketing and communication a work, social media is a blessing and a curse. Yet the love-hate relationship corporate America has with social media continues to be an unavoidable melodrama that plays out like a soap opera scene on a regular basis.
Social media has proven itself useful for certain marketing, brand-building and other forms of web-based advertising. As a communication channel, certain social media tools are even being utilized for internal use at the office. That means more employees familiar with the ways of social media are of value in an office setting, and the higher-ups also need to become more familiar with social media as well.
But social media still manages to take up a great deal of free time for many employees. And for those that aren’t required to actually use social media for work purposes, their growing desire to tap into social media sites is a productivity drain. So what’s an office manager to do?
CNN brings new stats to light, detailing some of the negative things going on with employee use of social media channels. Even if the time spent on social media sites isn’t detrimental to an employee’s productivity, the way in which that social media outlet is used can be damaging to the company itself. Security breaches for confidentiality are high on the list of things employees are caught doing on social media sites, giving just cause for an employee to be reprimanded or even let go.
Of course, it’s easier to track this type of behavior with social media. If a company has the authority to track employee computer usage, it can also get a good trail on its employee’s behavior. Should that lead to an investigation, there’s quite a virtual paper trail that the employee has left behind. Not such a good move, but it’s indicative of the way in which social media is creating an enhanced form of accountability for individuals. It’s not just your friends that are cluing in to what you do on Facebook and Twitter, but your boss and team leader as well.
In an era where school teacher and principles are monitoring their students’ computer usage during school hours and beyond, our children are learning early on how figures of authority can become involved with your online social life. Perhaps this is just the changing ways of the future. No matter which way you slice it, it’s clear that your actions on social media sites can land you in hot water one way or another. As employers seek to hire trustworthy individuals that require less monitoring, the employees themselves will have to find a way to stay out of trouble.