Businesses have introduced policies that restrict access to certain websites that they consider non-business related. Though this is seen as being somewhat effective, restriction policies that are seen by the employees as being too drastic are creating problems within the workplace. Employees, especially in high stress level positions see the Internet as a way to escape from stress, the use the Internet as a way to clear their head and refocus their minds to the task at hand. If their outlet is taken away from them, they are deprived of idea generating escapes, or in some cases, the restriction even discourages professional relationships that could prove to be valuable if outside ideas or information is needed. Overall, businesses are facing challenges in dealing with Internet addiction. Do they limit the activity of their employees and prevent lost revenue, or do they allow their employees certain amounts of access freedom? Where should the line be for employers? Should there be strictly monitored and controlled Internet usage or should there be some sort of "allowed usage" cycle during a normal business day? What would your suggestions be if you were the boss dealing with Internet addiction in your business?
Works Cited
GARY M., STERN. "Removing The Curse Of Internet Addiction." Investors Business Daily 08 Feb. 2010: A09. Business Source Complete. Web. 1 Mar. 2013.
I find interesting how businesses are controlling their employees; in my opinion they should control how employee use their time. I think they should control the time been used in the internet not related to business and maybe say if they increase their productivity they can get a bonus, in that way you are controlling the time your employees used to work and also you can increase your productivity by that bonus your giving them. This may work for some but not for all employees. In my opinion if you go to work is to work not to play around in the internet.
ReplyDeleteFrancisco,
ReplyDeleteIt is an interesting topic to consider. It is also a topic with a considerable amount of grey area in regards to the limits of the employers authourity. They can, and already have limited usage in some workplaces. A bonus concept would encourage increased productivity as you suggested, thou there will be employees that are not interested as well. Since connectivity has become such a vital tool in business, the elimanation or strict control of internet resources would be impractical. I believe it will be some time before a truly efffective means of conrolling internet usage during company time will be created.
If anything, I believe an incentive program would be effective to a certain extent. If access to company resources were tracked and monitored then the amount of time an employee spends on the internet should be relatively easy to monitor. The program could reward employees with the least usage time. I am sure the costs would be an issue, but it is an interesting approach I think.
Kyle White
This is an interesting topic, I think we are facing with this issue constantly in the business environment. I would say that limiting employees to how much access they can have on the internet while working has its advantages and disadvantages. Even though some employees might use internet for playing games online or to interact with friend through social networks other employees use the internet to actually research for better things for the company or for a way to provide better customer service. That is how I see it and how we still need to work in this issue so we can balance it in a way that by providing certain limits to employees it doesn't affect the company's performance.
ReplyDeleteI feel that companies should allow employees to have their freedom of internet use, unless the work is suffering. If there are serious decreases in productivity then some measures will need to be taken. So my point of view is that employees should be trusted until they lose that trust.
ReplyDelete