21st Century Prohibition – Managing the modern day Pandora’s box
As I write this post my Twitter profile is minimised, I’ve checked my Facebook at least twice today, researched articles on-line and watched a couple of items from last night’s TV news – a normal day in the life of a PR professional. For many the internet is an essential tool. But it can also have a dark side (and I don’t mean the vast amounts of R rated content). It can seduce you into spending far more time surfing than you initially intended and decrease productivity and focus.
One survey suggests that personal internet usage at work accounts for 25% of all browsing while others have put it closer to a staggering two thirds of browsing time. Like Pandora’s box the temptation to look inside and see what’s new is irresistible especially when you have a case of 3.30-itis.
So how can we balance the benefits with the down-sides? How can we ensure it doesn’t eat at productivity and organisational performance? Strict rules and bans are probably not the right approach for most organisations. If people want to spend their time surfing the net and avoiding work it is likely there are bigger issues than internet access. The tone of an organisation is likely to change when there are strict bans enforced. People who want to slack off can find plenty of other ways – txting and emailing for example.
In our organisation the work-home blur means there is frequent overlap. Media calls and releases late at night are balanced by the ability to dispatch personal matters through the course of your work day. The ability to quickly deal with a pesky bill payment or booking on-line can prevent that nagging distraction in your workload and allow you to focus on the job at hand. That free thinking time to surf and trawl can result in new ideas or spark creative inspiration for a campaign you may be working on. In setting your internet usage guidelines you need to ensure it fits with the culture and professional requirements of your workplace.
As communicators we are self-regulating. On the other hand it has been suggested recently at TVNZ that sites such as Facebook and TradeMe be blocked during work hours. The thinking behind this was cutting bandwidth costs. As they are communicators as well, is this conducive to business in the media sector?
