OY get off Facebook and get back to work you slacking dogs
I remember the days of the commute to work, trying to avoid armpits, being used as a newspaper stand, limping to the office because some one stepped on my toes, worse jabbed in the eyes with an umbrella, and having a fleeting thought of…I can see why some one would want to throw themselves under a train, but could they not have waited until after the rush hour? Arriving at the office and knowing I would be there for nine hours. Nine hours per day, Monday to Friday.I often wondered if employers could ever remember a time when they were working for some one else, stuck in a world of routine and habits. Grinding away on a corporate treadmill amidst oppressive silence and only being able to escape to go to the toilet, or your fifteen minute break, your one hour lunch, your fifteen minute break in the afternoon. It’s possible, I believe, to become quite invisible, not only to others in the work place but one can forget that one used to have a personality. I remember one girl starting at a company where I worked. The day she started, she came in at 8.30am and was full of drive and ambitions and ideas. She was young, cheerful and full of enthusiasm on her first day. Time went on, the smile turned into a droop, the energy seemed to have gone and she became quite middle aged well before her years, and all this before she had reached her lunch hour.
Employees seem to sacrifice such a lot in exchange for a pay packet. Health, freedom, seeing the light of day, like Pavlov’s dogs, conditioned and beaten into submission by society’s traditional notions of how and when we should work, at what pace. Nine hours with one and half hours break. Fact is, many people don’t even take their breaks, so conditioned are we to be a slave to our work and our supervisors. I think the following sums up this paragraph quite nicely.
The work ethos has changed very little over the years. Dickensian rules still apply. Its hard to believe but in some places of work, you still have to clock in and clock out. Employers scared that they could be done out of a whole five minutes worth of production time, then some government official comes out with a statistic, Workers taking time off for illness – real or feigned – cost UK firms just under £12bn last year, according to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).(source BBC). Is it any wonder we are a nation of sick people, I wonder how much mental illness can be attributed to the old pressures of traditional working ethos. Work until you retire then drop dead two years later. I know for some people that have no choice, socio economic factors, education, skills, you name it really.
So what is the point of this article… well its a reaction to this article
(71% of office workers access social networking sites at least ‘a few times a week’. One in three (39%) access them several times a day. 27% of office workers spend three or more hours a week using these sites when at work. 42% of office workers have discussed work-related issues on these sites. Source: Survey conducted by YouGov among 2,629 adults aged 18-29.
I got an email from a company that wants to set up an affiliate program to sell some software to Employers to prevent their employees from accessing… of all things and I quote…”facebook, MSN messgr and myspace” and other sites deemed by a company as distractions that will reduce the work flow. Seems to me that any company needing to buy this software and use it, cant trust their employees to much. I have pondered over why employers seem to operate within such a rigid work ethic. If a company has to use this software, what does this say about the company? Surely if the work, deadlines and quality/quantity is delivered by the employee, then is this not what counts? If by an employee interacting with his/her friend whilst at work, within reason and does not affect production, why then is there a need to install such a bit of kit? Also, this cant be a good signal from the employer to the employee as the message is, we don’t trust you, we don’t think you are responsible enough to manage your time and work even though you’re an adult and have kids and a mortgage.
Of course employees should not have access to porn sites whilst at work, but do you not have a codes of conduct, employment contracts, health and safety about spending too long at the computer. Seems like companies are very swift at enforcing traditional Dickensian work ethics, I wish they were as swift when it comes to the employee who comes in at 8.30 and leaves at 6.30 -7pm when they contract says 9-5.30 (are employers so swift to pay them the over time, are employers so swift to remind their staff to take their breaks?) Pay a minimum wage, maternity leave and so on.
The lad that was sacked from Argos, why should one bad apple spoil the cart? Also remember there are two sides to every story.
Perhaps the answer is not to forbid the internet re social networking sites and the likes of msn..rather dont be scared of it, take it, shape it, tame it, control it! If there is a monster under your bed, throwing a blanket over your head is not going to make it go away. On a darker note, perhaps employers just want to cover up the poor working conditions their employees have to work under?
I keep going on about how we seem to be caught up in some kind of traditional time warp loop. The key to productive employees is to remove the shackles of tradition (beat them with a stick to make them work attitude). We don’t need to get up and plough the field at 5am anymore. Not all of us work on the stock market, so therefore not confined to the 8 – 4.30. We no longer have to punch in and out, your employees have watches, we have computers and can work remotely, from home, from abroad and even from the moon. “Motivation is the third and most difficult of the factors in the employment relationship for employers to effectively manage. Employee motivation can often be in direct conflict with control mechanisms of employers, and can be broadly defined as that which energizes, directs and sustains human behavior (Lawrence Stone my fav history author)
A happy trusted workforce will yield dividends, literally. Employers need to be reminded, your employee chose to work at your company, they chose to give up a big part of their lives because they believe in your product. Cut them some slack, let them have the odd five minutes to remind them that there is a life outside of work. Employees make money for you in return for relatively little. How many houses, cars, jets, villas do you own of the back of their work? Chances are your employee already works over time without being paid for it.
I can look back with fond memories of my own 9-5.30 jobs and will sleep easy today knowing that by declining this company that sells this software, I had no hand in making some of the hardest working building blocks in British Businesses live’s that bit less tolerable.A reminder, dont be scared of it, take it, shape it, tame it, control it!
If there is a monster under your bed, throwing a blanket over your head is not going to make it go away. A real savvy employer will use Facebook to their full advantage!
Just look at ecommerce and with specific reference to affiliatemarketing and the billions that are made each year by using MSN mssg,voice over ip and social networking :0)
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Comments
God bless my Grandad, the wise old man that he his. He once told me “find a job you live and you’ll never work a day in your life”. So simple but so true.
When I hear complaints from colleagues, friends and family about how much their work bores them, overworks them, underpays them etc etc I can’t help but wonder “why don’t you change it?” It also makes me feel that I might just have found the right one for me.
Here’s to getting paid to do what you love and never ‘working’ again 😀
well said Jess. You’ve highlighted the problem with some advertisers, they just don’t get social – yet the majority of them are extremely familiar with the concept of “word of mouth”, they all talk about it being the best form of marketing etc. Yet when it comes to social they revert back to CPM/display and little social advertising. Facebook/YouTube and all the other social sites are the way the web and therefore digital marketing is going – so to stop your employees using and understanding it is the equivalent to marketing suicide. they wont see it for a few months/years, but eventually they’ll feel the pinch where it hurts – the balance sheet.
Greavsie