Lately I have been reading many articles on employees using and accessing social networking sites at their work place. Its become a great cause of concern for many organisations because they feel that productivity is lost as people are constantly accessing social networking sites during work hours.
According to research carried out by ASSOCHAM, 84% of Indians who have access to the internet are showing signs of internet addiction. 93% of youngster say that they are aware of social networking sites and are averaging an hour a day on sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Orkut.Companies are facing a 12.5% productivity loss in such circumstances. And more importantly the work day has been reduced from 8 hours to 7 hours.
But have companies stopped to ask, Is social networking really harming the corporate environment?
According to me, I think Social networking, if controlled, is a very good organisation feature to have. Todays work style is so stressful that employees are finding ways to run away into a different world. Facebook has a popular game called Farmville. Farmville is a role playing game where Facebook users begin to live in a virtual world. In a world where they do not face any of the hardships of life that they face in their real life. For eg, working in bombay is a very demanding work style. Waking up at 6, taking a crowded train to work and then a bus and finally your boss yells at you for being late or for not doing your work. This is something that many of you reading this article have to endure every day.
The Dutch government as a first legalised drugs and prostituion in Amsterdam. How did this help the community. Here are some facts:
1. Legalising Drugs brought down crime rates in amsterdam in big way. Globally it has been proven that Drugs in the number 1 cause for crime to take place.
2. Legalising prostitution virtually decartelised the mafia's that used to run this type of business. When prostitution became legal, there was no reason for the mafia rings to run the business underground. Also with government control, health standards increased for the workers.
My Stance on Social Networking at the Work Place:
Digital Life or Social Networking offers a chance for companies to study the employees psyche. To understand the mental health of the employee. Most importantly it plays a very important role in ensuring that the employee remains motivated at the work place. LIfe in the digital world disconnects the employee from all the problems they face in their real world. It creates a world where they can achieve their goals and dreams. And most importantly it gives them control.
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