Does blocking sites at work make employees more productive? (1 Viewer)

[Chadstroma]

Seems like a better idea to just set up something that emails an internet activity report for every employee to their direct manager.

If an employee is productive, I wouldn't even look at it. If an employee isn't productive, I'd be curious what they're spending their time doing.

Does it even matter? You address their productivity with them. If it doesnt improve then maybe take that further.

The internet activity report seems like a waste of money when a few 5 minute conversations would be more effective anyway.

Would just be one more thing to put in the file so HR would be ok with letting them go. Truthfully, a company that felt it had to do this would probably be a terrible place to work. Which would be bad for the company. Probably an awful idea all the way around.

The thing is, this company wasn't like that at all until this week. We have a ping pong table, a fusbol table. Most people dress in jeans. There are no offices, everyone, even the VPs sit in the same honeycomb structures everywhere. We have no set sick days, PTO etc, everything is just "within reason". So I could take as much time off as my manager lets met. WFH is pretty common and even encouraged...

Then the internet got cut in half.

That seems like cognitive dissonance. Let's trust our employees to take time off as needed but not abuse it but let's not trust them to navigate the internet.

 

[sublimeone]

Having an internet filter is essential IMO. Most of my employees are under 30. Maybe that makes a difference. We also have guidelines on cell phone use in the office so if someone is on their cell phone constantly they'll get an email with the company policy outlined.

Sounds like hell. People can't listen to music on their phones in your office?

People are allowed to listen to music on their phones. Most of them use their computers though.

It only becomes an issue when a person is on their phone constantly. It's pretty easy to identify when it's becoming an issue and I don't think I've had to address is the issue more than a few times total.

 

[sublimeone]

I say it helps productivity. The temptation is just too great, and limiting it helps. It's really easy to piss away a few hours on the Internet when you could be doing something productive.

I'm all for checking out CNN at lunch, but why allow Facebook, etc.? It's the company's time. Do that stuff at home.

This is spot on.

 

[ghostguy123]

I say it helps productivity. The temptation is just too great, and limiting it helps. It's really easy to piss away a few hours on the Internet when you could be doing something productive.

I'm all for checking out CNN at lunch, but why allow Facebook, etc.? It's the company's time. Do that stuff at home.

This is spot on.

While we're at it might as well get rid of all the phones. The temptation is just too great to call a friend or spouse or GF or set up a doctors appointment. Better get rid of posters and paintings. Damn employees might be tempted to look at those and waste time. Better not let people sit too close to each other. Too much temptation to talk about non work related things on company time. Better cover up all the windows. Too much temptation to see whats going on out there.

While the comment that you consider to be "spot on" is technically correct, it's a very lazy form of management that won't work anyway because you are not actually addressing any sort of problem. You are putting a band aid over a bullet hole. Eventually you will have to actually speak to your employees about their specific productivity level if you want actual results. Oh no, the horror. Talking to someone about a problem.

There is nothing that infuriates a work staff more than when a blanket rule gets put into effect because one idiot was doing something they shouldn't have been doing. If Sally Smith spent 9 hours on Facebook and didn't do any work, yet your way of addressing that is to get rid of Facebook, I promise you that is a management style that will NOT get the best possible productivity out of the employees.

 

[ghostguy123]

Companies should just fire employees who cant get their work done and not spend resources on blocking software and such. If they're obviously not getting their work done or not meeting expectations, get rid of them, otherwise, who gives a ####?

Theoretically this makes sense but it doesn't work this way. And firing people is a PITA. In my experience people actually prefer a structured environment with rules and guidelines.

So then set up structure with rules and guidelines. It seems like it would be much more of a PITA to do petty things like this, piss everyone off, and probably do nothing for productivity than to have to fire the very small % of people who would not listen to a word you say in a 1 on 1 sit down session who goes on to just flake away on the internet at work anyway.

 

[ghostguy123]

Oh, I am also not saying there should be complete unlimited access. I can see the reasoning to filter out porn and gambling. Although, that would be a very easy way to fire anyone you do not like. Just allow everything but have a clear rule stating anyone looking at porn or gambling will be terminated. Easy way to weed out the morons.

 

[NutterButter]

I spend an obscene amount of time at work browsing the internet through a proxy. Even if I had good managers that could effectively monitor my time which I certainly don't, the system is so easy to game. I'd probably work more if they blocked sites. Sure, I could browse on my phone but its such a worse browsing experience. Then again, I'd probably just change jobs if they did block sites.

 

[ghostguy123]

I spend an obscene amount of time at work browsing the internet through a proxy. Even if I had good managers that could effectively monitor my time which I certainly don't, the system is so easy to game. I'd probably work more if they blocked sites. Sure, I could browse on my phone but its such a worse browsing experience. Then again, I'd probably just change jobs if they did block sites.

Another factor to consider. People not wanting to work for a company cracking the whip on the internet in the year 2015.

 

[Spanky24]

I spend an obscene amount of time at work browsing the internet through a proxy. Even if I had good managers that could effectively monitor my time which I certainly don't, the system is so easy to game. I'd probably work more if they blocked sites. Sure, I could browse on my phone but its such a worse browsing experience. Then again, I'd probably just change jobs if they did block sites.

Another factor to consider. People not wanting to work for a company cracking the whip on the internet in the year 2015.

Company I work for has TERRIBLE turnover. They treat their employee's like children, micromanage the heck out of us and yes, limit the websites you have access to. (Which believe it or not is a big deal nowdays) Thankfully, my position is one of the very few here that is great.

 

[top dog]

Seems like a better idea to just set up something that emails an internet activity report for every employee to their direct manager.

If an employee is productive, I wouldn't even look at it. If an employee isn't productive, I'd be curious what they're spending their time doing.

Does it even matter? You address their productivity with them. If it doesnt improve then maybe take that further.

The internet activity report seems like a waste of money when a few 5 minute conversations would be more effective anyway.

Would just be one more thing to put in the file so HR would be ok with letting them go. Truthfully, a company that felt it had to do this would probably be a terrible place to work. Which would be bad for the company. Probably an awful idea all the way around.

The thing is, this company wasn't like that at all until this week. We have a ping pong table, a fusbol table. Most people dress in jeans. There are no offices, everyone, even the VPs sit in the same honeycomb structures everywhere. We have no set sick days, PTO etc, everything is just "within reason". So I could take as much time off as my manager lets met. WFH is pretty common and even encouraged...

Then the internet got cut in half.

It is also entirely possible that your IT department added a new firewall that has web filtering, or decided to go to a new web filtering and the default settings are in place. They may be ironing out the kinks. When we switched to using Websense a few years back, all kinds of sites were blocked and we had to constantly unblock sites that were blocked because it fell into a category that was surprisingly blocked.

We ended up moving on from that service after our contract expired. We did not have any additional web filtering in place other than our firewall filtering at one of our other sites and management was happy to find out that they division without nazi web filtering was working just fine and the network wasn't broken. So now all our sites don't use the additional filtering.

 

[Spin]

Oh, I am also not saying there should be complete unlimited access. I can see the reasoning to filter out porn and gambling. Although, that would be a very easy way to fire anyone you do not like. Just allow everything but have a clear rule stating anyone looking at porn or gambling will be terminated. Easy way to weed out the morons.

I think porn stuff HAS to be blocked in order to prevent a law suit. If you can get in serious trouble for random comments heard at work, imagine the workplace related law suits for a company that knowingly has porn sites unblocked.

 

[ghostguy123]

Oh, I am also not saying there should be complete unlimited access. I can see the reasoning to filter out porn and gambling. Although, that would be a very easy way to fire anyone you do not like. Just allow everything but have a clear rule stating anyone looking at porn or gambling will be terminated. Easy way to weed out the morons.

I think porn stuff HAS to be blocked in order to prevent a law suit. If you can get in serious trouble for random comments heard at work, imagine the workplace related law suits for a company that knowingly has porn sites unblocked.

Likely true. Illegal stuff is a separate category here I would imagine.

 

[kutta]

I say it helps productivity. The temptation is just too great, and limiting it helps. It's really easy to piss away a few hours on the Internet when you could be doing something productive.

I'm all for checking out CNN at lunch, but why allow Facebook, etc.? It's the company's time. Do that stuff at home.

This is spot on.

While we're at it might as well get rid of all the phones. The temptation is just too great to call a friend or spouse or GF or set up a doctors appointment. Better get rid of posters and paintings. Damn employees might be tempted to look at those and waste time. Better not let people sit too close to each other. Too much temptation to talk about non work related things on company time. Better cover up all the windows. Too much temptation to see whats going on out there.

While the comment that you consider to be "spot on" is technically correct, it's a very lazy form of management that won't work anyway because you are not actually addressing any sort of problem. You are putting a band aid over a bullet hole. Eventually you will have to actually speak to your employees about their specific productivity level if you want actual results. Oh no, the horror. Talking to someone about a problem.

There is nothing that infuriates a work staff more than when a blanket rule gets put into effect because one idiot was doing something they shouldn't have been doing. If Sally Smith spent 9 hours on Facebook and didn't do any work, yet your way of addressing that is to get rid of Facebook, I promise you that is a management style that will NOT get the best possible productivity out of the employees.

Wow. You really seem emotional about this issue.

Look, for the past 14 years I have owned my own engineering business. We have 40 employees. We don't block any websites and our only "Internet policy" has been "No child porn."

But I am not naive enough to realize that people spend time online when they could be working. Heck, I'm at work right now and I'm dorking around on FBG. There is a big temptation to go online, and I don't think it is too onerous to block some sites that folks just shouldn't be on while at work.

And while I agree in theory with your "productivity" argument, when you are talking about engineering work, prodcutivity is not simple to measure. It's not like you have to turn in x number of reports per day, or answer y number of phone calls. It can take awhile to figure out if someone is pulling their weight, and even then, how do you know that they couldn't do more even if their productivity level is accceptable?

The question was if it would help productivity, not if it would hurt morale. I don't know how you can argue that it would not help productivity.

 

[ghostguy123]

You dont think morale has anything to do with productivity? You dont think that if people are "stuck" on something they may very well need a break, and that break just might be a few minutes spent on a common website that might be blocked(see FBG, facebook.....)?

It would help productivity a lot more to speak to your employees about their productivity, not take things away and hope for magic.

The internet probably hurts productivity for some, sure. But as a manager i would hope you have learned some techniques to help that.

 

[Nugget]

My business hammock hasn't helped my productivity, but it sure is sweet.

 

[kutta]

You dont think morale has anything to do with productivity? You dont think that if people are "stuck" on something they may very well need a break, and that break just might be a few minutes spent on a common website that might be blocked(see FBG, facebook.....)?

It would help productivity a lot more to speak to your employees about their productivity, not take things away and hope for magic.

The internet probably hurts productivity for some, sure. But as a manager i would hope you have learned some techniques to help that.

OK.

 

[ghostguy123]

So why haven't you block any websites again? Sounds like a surefire way to boost productivity. Weird.

 

[Rustoleum]

Tangentially related: I work in IT for a school district. Yesterday afternoon I cleaned up a guest account that students were using to give them access to Facebook and YouTube (and other staff only sites).

Today, our bandwidth usage was probably 20% lower.

 

[kutta]

So why haven't you block any websites again? Sounds like a surefire way to boost productivity. Weird.

Because I like to get on FBG and Facebook at work. Yes, I do believe I would be more productive if I didn't have access to them.

We are productive enough.

I'm not sure why you are so darn emotional about this. That's what's weird.

 

[ghostguy123]

I am emotional cause they blocked my kiddie porn sites at work.

 

[kutta]

I am emotional cause they blocked my kiddie porn sites at work.

Well that makes sense! I'd be pissed too.