News Report #4

Facebook, YouTube at Work Make Better Employees: Study
By: Miral Fahmy
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2009/04/reuters_us_work_internet_tech_life


This article talks about a study done in Australia that claims surfing around on the Internet increases productivity at work. Employees who use the Internet for personal reasons are nine percent more productive than those who do not surf the Internet at work. This people are surfing websites such as myspace, face book, google and many other sites. This study claims that de-winding on the Internet helps workers become more concentrated. Many work places spend millions of dollars trying to block their employees from doing these such things, trying to keep them on task, but actually this is helping them! This study was sure to state the difference between browsing on leisure time to de-wind, and being addicted to the Internet all day.

This was a very interesting study. I think employers should be cautious when it comes to the Internet, but not overly cautious. As long as the work is getting done efficiently it should not matter if they browse the Internet in the process. Everyone is unique and carries out a task differently. Not everyone can complete a task working on it 8 hours straight. People’s attention spans are different and some may need to de-wind through out the day. If browsing through web pages helps people’s attention spans and concentration, I think it should be aloud. In the real world, people are not going to be babysat. If they lose their job for abusing the Internet, that should be their fault. I do think however, employers should monitor the sites being viewed. This is to keep the company’s reputation, and promote good behavior in the workforce. Searching youtube and face book on leisure time is certainly different than inappropriate sites people know they should not be viewing.