Employers Shunning MySpace, Facebook

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Employers are blocking sites like MySpace and Facebook in the workplace citing security concerns and lost productivity? Gee, really?

The Web may be the last bastion of uncensored speech, but things get a bit more locked down once you browse it from within the walls of your employer, according to a Barracuda Networks analysis of data contributed by thousands of its Barracuda Web Filter customers.
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At my workplace they block Youtube as well which actually sometimes has work relevant info. MySpace and Facebook really don't have a place in the corporate workplace.
 
Everyone at my job uses myspace and I'm pretty sure they are going block it soon. ( My boss will be pissed :p)
 
Bluecoat's been blocking all those for awhile now. Facebook, MySpace, Youtube, gaming sites, entertainment, streaming sites... pretty much anything fun. :p
 
My productivity would probably increase if they blocked facebook.

Although I might just spend the time on [H] instead.
 
I don't know about MySpace and Facebook, but I have [H]ardForum to thank for *my* lost of productivity ;)

(if you ban me, I'm gonna tell everyone about your manbra!)
 
My work blocks Flash-esque game sites and sites relating to anything about gaming, social sites, video sites, and more.

Fortunately the [H] isn't blocked, but I only browse moderately. Everything we do is monitored, and my immediate supervisor will get a report of my most visited websites, including number of hits, Kb transferred, and time spent.

To my defense, it's not that my productivity is hindered by the Internet, but that the Internet fills in the productivity void. ;)
 
Hey,

Do you know what software they're using to gather the web usage data and generate the reports? I need to do that here.
 
I think myspace and its ilk have been unblocked at my company, for recruiting purposes. I remember a story from back when the company still had those sites blocked, and to satisfy the tons of the interns the company got (college types) the company actually set up an internal social networking type of site.

Within a day, that site was already full of pictures of half naked people, pictures of massive binge parties with the interns (almost all of them underage) and the typical stuff you expect from myspace. The company shut it down pretty fast, it was becoming a liability in just days.

As long as my company does not block [H], ars, penny-arcade, I should be set. Ars and [H] are actually work-related for me too, which is good.
 
Good, news flash, your at work to, get ready WORK!!! not use the companies resources to further your sad excuse of a social life online, it is amazing this day in age what people think they have a "right' to do at work and get so pissed if they cant.

imagine the bandwidth usage of say, just 50 employee's browsing Youtube all day.
 
I wouldn't even think about going on those sites at work.

Forums like this and sites like Newegg on the other hand :D

I actually deleted my myspace the other day, too much contact and too much personal info floating around. Some of those "friends" on my list could end up making me look very bad :eek:

I still can't figure out the Internet filter at work. Some forums work and some don't. First I thought it was "forum" in the main URL but then I found out this forum works. Strange stuff.
 
hehe, this is when its good to be the IT guy at work, we block all that, but my machine is outside that zone for... um... research... :cool:
 
We don't block them at my job, but anyone found on them gets one warning then they lose their internet access for a week. We use wireshark to monitor the network traffic.
 
Silentbob343 said:
good and colleges should follow
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Hell no! Fast and "free" Internet access is one of the best things about college!

This whole "lost productivity" crap is a pile of BS, US workers as a whole are extremely productive.

What we need is not more productivity, but rather higher quality of life, less stress at work, and a happier workforce.

They recently put up a firewall where I work and it sucks. Being able to brows the web in between calls was one of the main "perks" of working at my company.
 
Lost produciviy is not crap, look at companies prior to the internet in the state it is now, vs today....

when sites like this didnt exist 10 years ago, or werent widely known, people went to work to work, they socialized with REAL people at work on their breaks, when their breaks were over, they worked at their given task.

yes, many people are still productive, but i think this whole generation is fubar'd because of things like myspace and the way worht ethics are now, this generation and the next has / is going to have alot of lazy "i want it it all, but i dont want to work for it" attitude with very few people being the real hard workers.
 
I think it's a little bit of a double standard when companies routinely use Facebook and MySpace to dig up dirt on prospective employees. Unfortunately, people don't use these sites sensibly and spend way too much time on them at work, so I can see why they might need to be blocked.
 
MrGuvernment said:
Good, news flash, your at work to, get ready WORK!!! not use the companies resources to further your sad excuse of a social life online, it is amazing this day in age what people think they have a "right' to do at work and get so pissed if they cant.

imagine the bandwidth usage of say, just 50 employee's browsing Youtube all day.
Click to expand...

If you simply pay people based on their performance then none of this talk about productivity/blocking Internet would be needed. The money would be the motivation.

And, if people can do their job well even while they waste half their time browsing the web, then MORE POWER TO THEM!

Ironic, but the corporate world wants us to be sucked into the worlds of television and the Internet so that we'll be content (pacified) rather than getting outside and talking to each other about matters that are actually important; and so we'll be content with our ever decreasing pay as the rich get greedier and take larger portions of the pie for themselves.
 
gibber said:
If you simply pay people based on their performance then none of this talk about productivity/blocking Internet would be needed. The money would be the motivation.

And, if people can do their job well even while they waste half their time browsing the web, then MORE POWER TO THEM!

Ironic, but the corporate world wants us to be sucked into the worlds of television and the Internet so that we'll be content (pacified) rather than getting outside and talking to each other about matters that are actually important; and so we'll be content with our ever decreasing pay as the rich get greedier and take larger portions of the pie for themselves.
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+100000000000 Agreed ! :) Many of us are already overworked and underpaid as it is now.My wife works 50 to 60 hour weeks,she puts her heart and soul into her position.
And yet,the company has a shit fit if she,or any of her many co workers,are 30 seconds late from lunch break.They'll get 'written up' in a heart beat.Do all this and still they want you to work overtime,and take work home,hich in the ned makes for more stress,and no free time for family,etc.Many compaines want your heart,mind,blood,sweat and tears.and all your time.
 
MrGuvernment said:
Lost produciviy is not crap, look at companies prior to the internet in the state it is now, vs today....

when sites like this didnt exist 10 years ago, or werent widely known, people went to work to work, they socialized with REAL people at work on their breaks, when their breaks were over, they worked at their given task.

yes, many people are still productive, but i think this whole generation is fubar'd because of things like myspace and the way worht ethics are now, this generation and the next has / is going to have alot of lazy "i want it it all, but i dont want to work for it" attitude with very few people being the real hard workers.
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You can tell me that people never took 5 minutes longer on break for rest? No one ever brought a newspaper or magazine and read it while they should be working? Once a break was over, no one ever talked to each other while working or walked around to other positions just to chat?

I work in a bigbox retailer and the only websites our computers are allowed to go to are vendor websites (we could not even go ON the internet about 6 months ago). Productivity is lost because associates talk to each other on the floor. The thing to consider is whether or not they would be more productive spending all 8 hours doing tasks or being able to spend 5 minutes a couple times a day chatting.

People have always been social beings. Work ethic involves completing ones tasks in the alloted time. It is not always about the money. A person needs to have pride in their work. Any time spent not working would not mean it is not being productive.
 
You should see the complaints about it! Its just sad actually. Not even speaking about the kids I'm talking about the adult workers, they complain that they can't get to this or that and don't try to explain to them what a loophole/proxy is they just don't get it. There is also the ones that need sites to work, and can't understand that babelfish will grab sites and then give them to you, thus making our content filter useless (and weren't you hired under the biases that you could translate your documents yourself?)

Its a mad world.
 
Azhar said:
I don't know about MySpace and Facebook, but I have [H]ardForum to thank for *my* lost of productivity ;)

(if you ban me, I'm gonna tell everyone about your manbra!)
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You mean
man_bra.jpg
? LOL

If it weren't for the distractions I have from my job, I'd actually get nothing done because I'd go into a coma from staring at the same thing for 8 hours a day. Also, lately, I've been getting my entire week's work done on Mondays, so I'd have nothing to do for the rest of the week. :eek:
 
GilmourD said:
You mean
man_bra.jpg
? LOL

If it weren't for the distractions I have from my job, I'd actually get nothing done because I'd go into a coma from staring at the same thing for 8 hours a day. Also, lately, I've been getting my entire week's work done on Mondays, so I'd have nothing to do for the rest of the week. :eek:
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lol thats the one. I'm the only IT guy in a small project management company where people occassionally have glitches and problems. The [H] fills in the rest of the hours which I would've otherwise died from boredom.

I just finished a large project - setting up a new server, and create a load balancing farm of 3 Citrix Presentation Servers. Quite a challenge for someone who never messed with Citrix before. But it was a ton of fun.

Now that's over, it's back to being slow again.
 
I don't mind them blocking stuff like Facebook and MySpace. When non computer-savvy people call it "facecrack" or put in their msn contact name "if you're not on myspace I don't know you", you know you've got a phenomenon that will just get in the way of everything. It's not blocked at my work, but I still never go there no matter how many message notifications I get.

What makes me mad is that work has now decided to block 'blogs', so regular research blogs that I used to read are now quota time. Hey, company, I'm doing a favour by reading these! wth?! Here's the reason though: I think non-IT / dev folks luurrrrve to surf the web and chat on msn all day. While they are essential tools for us, they are a playground for these other departments. So we suffer because they suck.
 
Manny Calavera said:
+100000000000 Agreed ! :) Many of us are already overworked and underpaid as it is now.My wife works 50 to 60 hour weeks,she puts her heart and soul into her position.
And yet,the company has a shit fit if she,or any of her many co workers,are 30 seconds late from lunch break.They'll get 'written up' in a heart beat.Do all this and still they want you to work overtime,and take work home,hich in the ned makes for more stress,and no free time for family,etc.Many compaines want your heart,mind,blood,sweat and tears.and all your time.
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My complain applies more to those many people who dont work, who slack off all day, while others, like your wife, works their asses off to get by.

it becomes the whole "one person ruined it for everyone", many companies do work their employee's too hard and pay too little, it is not easy to get by these days, but the other issue is people are affraid to leaev their jobs and find new ones, so they get stuck in a rut because of a risk they dont want to, or for many, simply cant take cause they have financial responsibilties.

there is TONS of money to be made out there for everyone, it is just finding how to get your piece of it.
 
While they are essential tools for us, they are a playground for these other departments. So we suffer because they suck.
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as i said, other ruin for us, for those who rely on the Inet for information or sales or purchases, which i do daily.

i think companies need to really think out their acceptable use policy per department / person, based on what their job entails and what they

NEED access too
WANT access too
GIVE access too

alot of people think they "need" something when it is really a "want".

all you need is food and water to survive, you dont need myspace and facebook, what is really sad, is people who have their my / fb forward to their phones so they can get messages and shit, like DEUM!!!!!
 
People who work their asses off to get by fall into one of two categories in my book "very unlucky" or "they fucked up".
 
MrGuvernment said:
as i said, other ruin for us, for those who rely on the Inet for information or sales or purchases, which i do daily.

i think companies need to really think out their acceptable use policy per department / person, based on what their job entails and what they

NEED access too
WANT access too
GIVE access too

alot of people think they "need" something when it is really a "want".

all you need is food and water to survive, you dont need myspace and facebook, what is really sad, is people who have their my / fb forward to their phones so they can get messages and shit, like DEUM!!!!!
Click to expand...

You're only 28, but you sound like a bitter 75-year-old pissed off at Generation X/Y.
 
gibber said:
This whole "lost productivity" crap is a pile of BS, US workers as a whole are extremely productive.

What we need is not more productivity, but rather higher quality of life, less stress at work, and a happier workforce.
Click to expand...

Americans are not as productive/$ as other nations, that's why jobs are going over seas We bitch and moan when we dont get things our way. Our quality of life is higher than other 1st world nations, yet we're still not satified. There's stress because we create it for our selves, always trying to keep up with the Jones'.
 
EliteFantasy said:
People have always been social beings. Work ethic involves completing ones tasks in the alloted time. It is not always about the money. A person needs to have pride in their work. Any time spent not working would not mean it is not being productive.
Click to expand...

This is true only to a certain extent.
I socialize with my IT team members, but that's usually as I'm actually doing work.
In any given day, suppose I'm going to get out of my cube to go fix someone else's computer, chances are I see people clicking on Facebook instead of actually doing work. There's a difference between socializing while working and just purely socializing.
 
You can look at productivity versus time wasted, but are you considering the quality of the work produced?

No play can drastically reduce an employee's desire to perform well. Healthy work environments have good interpersonal communication. Beyond the Internet, most employees benefit from a "fun" setting where they can work and still fulfill social needs. You're around the same people all day, all week. You become friends. You keep each other informed.

Regarding the Internet, employees can still perform efficiently and effectively while occasionally checking their personal email and news sites. You have to maintain mental stimulation. I know my job is boring and monotonous. Without visiting the [H] and CNN and such, I'd probably pass out at my desk. Plus I'm between two women, best friends, and it's awful sometimes.

The above only applies to sensible employees. Utterly disgruntled or incompetent employees are in a different boat.
 
GJSNeptune said:
You're only 28, but you sound like a bitter 75-year-old pissed off at Generation X/Y.
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i am the head of our support team and been with this company 7 years now, so seen alot of crap,, and i have dealt with the abuse and the lack of higher up's wanting to fire people and just punish everyone instead, it just really annoys me how much people complain when they actually have to do "work",god forbid. especially when i did the same job along side of them as their boss,

When you ask someone to do something and an hour later it is still not done because for them browsing on myspae and chatting on MSN was priority, just dealing with alot of people ages 19-36 and seeing how inproductive they are and how they want everything given to them, yet dont want to work for it.

I didn't get my first cmputer until i was 19 and worked my ass off for the money to buy it, i came from a family who wasnt well off, a mother on welfare after she was fired and the government would give her health benefits even though she had rumatoid arthritis, so financially i had a rough youth, i learned the value of a dollar and one shoudl work for it and not expect everything for free.

Me / our generation is the one caught, i think, in that transition from not tech savy to tech savy, caught in the middle, it just seems so many kids / teens these days have this mentality they deserve everything they want and it drives me nuts!
 
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