In the British workplace, time is money, and updating the Internet on your life 140 characters at a time is a luxury businesses apparently can’t afford. New research carried out by HCL Technologies and PR company Lewis Communications has discovered that 48% of British companies have banned employees from using Twitter and Facebook at work.
Interestingly, it’s not a fear of diminished productivity that’s behind the ban, but instead a worry about the reputation of the business. You know, because it’s inconceivable that employees would tweet negative comments about work once they’re home, or be more inclined to say bad things as a result of overly restrictive rules – like being banned from using social media by their employer.
As HCL Technologies’ chief executive Vineet Nayar said, “Banning them outright will impact employees’ approach to work in a negative way, having a detrimental effect on the business as a whole. It’s clear there is still a trust issue between employers and employees.”
On the plus side, at least they won’t be dropping snarky comments about their supervisors online for eight hours straight.
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