Just When Bosses Learn Social Networks Are a Pain, It Gets Worse
Employers have been already sweating over poor worker productivity because they access social networks, Facebook or MySpace at work. But now bosses have a new worry – appointment gaming hosted by the Web sites.
Yes, appointment or asynchronous games. Encarta defines asynchronous as “relating to or using an electronic communication method that sends data in one direction, one character at a time.”
Ouch. It doesn’t sound productive does it?
Well, it isn’t. It allows your workers to play games with their friends even when they’re not even online.
The games are called Café World, Farmville, Happy Aquarium, Pet Society and Restaurant City. The developers are Crowdstar, Playfish, Slashkey and Zynga.
Employees lose a double-digit percentage of their productivity because of such games, according to published reports. This isn’t surprising news to employers who have already found it necessary to make social networks off-limits to employees.
A Reuters’ published report quoted Rebecca Wetterman Nucleus Research, www.nucleusresearch.com, who said nearly 50 percent of white collar workers use social networks at work. The report also attributed a claim by Facebook that one in five of its members play the social networking games during office hours.
If you have to meet a payroll, this is an ominous development. Facebook has 350 million members.
From the Coach’s Corner, such social networking work is not only wasteful, it’s a threat to your company’s Internet security:
You’ll see why when you read these columns:
