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back to article 77 per cent ignore company social media policies

An extraordinary 77 per cent of employees simply ignore their company's social media policy, using Facebook, Twitter and other similar services how they wish. That's according to Pew Research, which spoke to just over 2,000 adults in the US, and has written up its findings in a new blog post. The stats show a complex picture …

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  1. ecofeco Silver badge

    Using social media to learn?

    Wow, that is a serious stretch. As in delusional. Work related solutions to work related problems are often found on websites related to the industry or straight up searches, not InstaFaceBookTwitterGram©®™.

    I have YET to see ANYONE on the job who is learning something job related from social media bullshit.

    As for taking a normal break and doing what they please, that's quite reasonable. No one should care what they are (legally) looking at on their breaks. But don't sell me this tired shit about social media having any redeeming value other than entertainment. Been hearing that for the last 10 years.

    37 0 Reply
    1. asdf
      Reply Icon

      Re: Using social media to learn?

      >. But don't sell me this tired shit about social media having any redeeming value

      Unless you got the right social media company stock pre IPO.

      11 0 Reply
    2. tfewster
      Reply Icon
      Facepalm

      Re: Using social media to learn?

      The article cherry-picks from a report that has already massaged the figures from a skewed survey of a dodgy demographic. I picked out a different conclusion - of the 33% of WORKERS who had EVER used social media for WORK-RELATED purposes, only 56% said it was useful IN THAT CONTEXT. i.e. 18% of workers think social media CAN be useful for work.

      I know that LinkedIn groups _can_ be used to ask work-related questions. Though they're mostly used by dodgy recruiters to spam people in a specialist area, so I dropped out of any groups I'd joined.

      7 0 Reply
      1. Mage Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        Devil

        Re: Using social media to learn?

        And they could be mistaken!

        Perhaps in reality Social Media is harmful, a waste of time and a form of Vanity Publishing.

        1 0 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Thumb Up

          Re: Using social media to learn?

          Perhaps in reality Social Media is harmful, a waste of time and a form of Vanity Publishing.

          What, like people spouting their opinions round here, sticking up thousands of posts under pseudonyms that have almost become private brands?

          You know, names like "Ledswinger" or "Mage".

          2 0 Reply
    3. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Using social media to learn?

      Does this include anti-social media sites like el'reg ?

      7 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Using social media to learn?

        My job is to fix System Center & SQL stuff. This means a lot of searching, I probably do a hundred different IT searches in a day because I can't remember how I fixed it last time.

        I never considered actively reaching out to the social entertainment sites for valuable IT info because I assume they would be less than useless.

        Google is quite good at returning seemingly random pages which contain *almost* all of the keywords I searched for, with some alternative words that might have a similar meaning when used in a different context, and still I have *never* seen a result which takes me to any of the social sites. Apparently that's how useful they are for my work.

        Of course other jobs are available but I suspect the 20% who find it useful are people like recruitment background checkers / events organizers and other such roles where networking is a requirement for the role, so of course it will be 'useful'.

        7 0 Reply
        1. PrivateCitizen
          Reply Icon

          Re: Using social media to learn?

          Ok, I am finding it odd that I (without a facebook or instagram account) am sort of defending social media but:

          still I have *never* seen a result which takes me to any of the social sites. Apparently that's how useful they are for my work.

          There is more to learning than acting as a memory resource. Social media is a (on the whole) a transitory environment so the key is learning new things. As an example when a brand new problem occurs in System Centre, people will announce and talk about it on social media. This is learning. Then when people fix the problem it will migrate to blog posts (also social media but more old-fashioned now) and tech articles (often on blog engines anyway).

          2 0 Reply
        2. Nifty Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: Using social media to learn?

          Um, is https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home a social media site?

          0 0 Reply
        3. patrick allen
          Reply Icon

          Re: Using social media to learn?

          @tfewster

          Give LinkedIn a couple of more shots, it has worked (at times) for me. Sometimes folks who know the answer will respond but sometimes you get no reply as they are too busy working (or they think someone else will respond).

          Or only want to post their own material, ignoring others...

          0 0 Reply
        4. Neill Mitchell
          Reply Icon

          Re: Using social media to learn?

          " I can't remember how I fixed it last time". Use you System Center & SQL stuff knowledge to provision a wiki ;)

          I run a Mediawiki instance for just that purpose and share it as a resource for my co-workers (assuming the information is suitable for publishing, if not I keep locked to just my account!)

          0 0 Reply
    4. PrivateCitizen
      Reply Icon

      Re: Using social media to learn?

      I have YET to see ANYONE on the job who is learning something job related from social media bullshit.

      I suspect a lot of this is down to a combination of what your job is and who you follow on [social media platform of choice].

      As an example, Twitter is a very good source of information security news around new exploits and what the impact of those exploits are. The key is to not follow social media luvvies but instead follow the people who know what they are talking about. These are global platforms with every type of person talking - you can choose to filter out the idiots, the vapid and the trolls.

      6 0 Reply
      1. patrick allen
        Reply Icon

        Re: Using social media to learn?

        Yes!!!!

        Ignore the crap and other nonsense, as much as you can and get to the meat of the matter. Too much garbage out there otherwise. Like PrivateCitizen noted, filter what you can.

        1 0 Reply
    5. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Using social media to learn?

      > As for taking a normal break and doing what they please, that's quite reasonable

      If your work is desk/screen bound, then your break should:

      1. Involve getting up and moving round

      2. Involve a break from the screen and keyboard

      7 0 Reply
    6. Robin
      Reply Icon

      Re: Using social media to learn?

      "I have YET to see ANYONE on the job who is learning something job related from social media bullshit."

      Via my Twitter feed I found a series of YouTube videos on Machine Learning from a Google developer, which I started watching and have since found an application for in my job.

      2 0 Reply
    7. Sgt_Oddball
      Reply Icon

      Re: Using social media to learn?

      That depends... does stack exchange count as social media?

      If so, then you can learn something if you work in I.T. even if it's some novel method to solving a problem in a way you've never come across before.

      0 0 Reply
  2. hellwig

    This is how I take a mental break.

    Coming here and being a commentard is how I take my mental breaks. And every now and then I do learn something work related (7-zip vulnerability for instance).

    But yeah, unless you work for a social media company, social media sites will NOT enlighten you.

    My wife worked at a marketing research firm, and rather than buy books and material on the latest data analysis methodologies, the boss's answer was "use the internet". As if companies are just posting million dollar ideas to Facebook. Rather than hire recruiters to fill staffing holes, they just posted to Craigslist. My point being, the appeal of the internet can work both ways, employees might thing they're being productive when they're not, and sometimes your boss thinks you SHOULD be more productive with the internet, when you can't be.

    14 0 Reply
  3. asdf

    common sense

    Rule #1 - never talk crap about your company online, if you feel the need you are probably better off finding a new company instead (trust me you know when you find the right one, just have to be patient)

    Rule #2 - if you have Kurt Schilling tendencies its probably best you figure out how to post as an AC or have sock puppet anon accounts.

    13 0 Reply
    1. Alien8n
      Reply Icon

      Re: common sense

      Rule 1, I cannot up vote this comment as much as it deserves. I have one particular "friend" who seems to only post how much she hates every single job she's ever had. That and her current load of utter nonsense about the EU referendum. I don't care how anyone else votes, we do live in a democracy, but please, Britain First is NOT a credible source for statistics to base your vote on. Accept that the official information from both sides is pretty much made up bollocks and do your own research and then make your own decision based on actual facts.

      1 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Unproductive breaks

    I used to be an employer, and at that time also a smoker. My accumulated time of smoking breaks per day outside of normal breaks would have amounted to roughly half an hour per day. Hence, in the spirit of "leading by example" I wouldn't even mention if any of my employees spent up to that amount of time on social media, having smokes, doing private phone calls, take a walk, sit on the watercooler or got coffee for everybody. In fact I never had to mention it at all. The nice side effect was that there seemed to be a sense of being treated like an adult, not a robot or "resource" (as humans are called nowadays in corporate lingo) who is chained to the desk.

    I believe, from my experience, that this made my staff more productive overall, and also more loyal to the company.

    Most people genuinely want to deliver good work. Let them. Tens of pages of codes of conduct and policies paired with a presumption of guilt and slackery aren't going to help with that.

    29 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Unproductive breaks

      'Resource' does my head in. I regularly find myself in meeting rooms with 'resource managers' and project managers - they chat away about 'positioning this resource here' and 'providing that resource there', as if we weren't even in the room. Contracts and process docs become infected with the word, it's everywhere and needs to stop, we are all hoomans ffs. It hurts sometimes.

      I guess the word is technically correct but I'm sure management wouldn't appreciate if we started calling them 'ass scratchers' because that's technically correct too.

      12 0 Reply
      1. Montreal Sean
        Reply Icon

        Re: Unproductive breaks

        You're telling me a resource manager isn't the guy who keeps the printers filled with paper and makes sure we have enough pens?

        So that's why he got so upset when I asked him why the printer was empty!

        0 0 Reply
    2. Kevin Johnston
      Reply Icon

      Re: Unproductive breaks

      I used to have a manager just like you. At the time my role meant that I was only earning money for the company when I was on a customer site and these would be visits of several weeks in length. One glorious sunny Friday we were chatting and he 'mentioned' that it was a wonderful day to be strolling round a golf course. Taking the hint I 'mentioned' that I wanted to clear through my systems documentation and toolkits and make sure things were neat and tidy. He merely said 'See you Monday' and off I went.

      The payback? One Saturday morning he rang me at home to say he needed me to fly out on Sunday to a customer for two weeks, I just asked which airport/flight.

      As you say, treat me like an adult and I will respond in kind and everyone feels good about it.

      8 0 Reply
  5. Arty Effem

    "56% say it's good for connecting with experts"

    Consulting the experts they are employed to be in the first place.

    3 0 Reply
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Breaks can help, IF your mindset is ok

    I'm a systems administrator and I used to follow a very specific and personal regulation: during the Friday I would keep a window open where I was logged onto an IRC network. The whole day... Of course it also helped that I was logged onto my own server, which also functioned as the IRC server. So there was no risk what so ever that the company IP could leak out or get abused.

    And it can definitely help you take your mind of things, but the most important part: the person who does this needs to be able to handle the distractions. All my friends in the #linux channel knew that Fridays, during the day, I could go AFK any second. Because obviously work comes first. And as long as you stick to that mindset then there's nothing wrong with spouting a few comments right after you set a new server to work on updates, or right after you fixed Ms. Jones permissions on the server so that she can work on her Word document again ("I'll promise not to click "protect" a next time").

    But yeah: don't give me this educational nonsense. It's entertaining, it's relaxing, but it's not educational all the time. It can be, sure, I've also had good moments when I discussed Linux kernel settings with some friends, which suddenly gave me new ideas to optimize stuff for our company server.

    Here's the thing: what works for me doesn't have to work for you. I also know plenty of people who'd get stuck in IRC all day long and wouldn't get any work done. So a company has to start somewhere, especially bigger ones.

    1 1 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Breaks can help, IF your mindset is ok

      I also know plenty of people who'd get stuck in IRC all day long and wouldn't get any work done. So a company has to start somewhere, especially bigger ones.

      Of course you will occasionally come across people who get a bit carried away with non-work stuff. Measure them based on deadlines, deliverables and how well they communicate any hold-ups. You'll find that those who get carried away also struggle to explain properly why they are not making the expected progress or let deadlines slip. Turns out, very often they get carried away with other stuff, because they feel stuck with a problem or a dreading a particular task.

      Managers can also use the power of peer pressure (especially in bigger companies). Peers will not like when one member of the team slacks off or gets carried away frequently. Eventually that will surface (even though nobody likes to rat either).

      A good manager senses tension in the team and knows what everybody's up to and supposed to be doing. He'll face issues head on (far beyond the slacking/carried away problem, which is trivial to get a grip on).

      A bad manager uses timesheet based management; it encourages lying creative writing and makes it easier for the manager to ignore problems, because on paper everything is looking good and the team is busy.

      1 0 Reply
  7. Potemkine Silver badge

    I'm sure we can be confident in the users' answers to be honest and sincere.... ROTFL.

    On the 'Health' point of view, it's much better to walk a little than hanging on social media

    1 0 Reply
  8. Charlie Clark Silver badge
    Holmes

    Confirmation bias

    Well, of course, a majority of those using the internet at work will say it is for work purposes. I think it's difficult to create a large-scale survey that wouldn't support that assertion.

    For tech stuff IRC, mailing lists and relevant forums (include StackExchange) are useful resources. Do they count as social networks?

    LinkedIn's groups tend to be full of reposts of external resources by people trying to improve their own profiles.

    0 0 Reply
  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    gettin' more stupider

    I worry that when faced with a new problem rather than delve into any past history I will reach for a search engine and armed with the unique words associated with the problem set forth to gather the latest information.

    I rarely end up on a true social media sites but Youtube has delivered some gems, when there are 20 options as part of an unfamilair software set up it is so much easier seeing what someone else (with a working install) has chosen than RTFM and try to consider all obscure options.

    If the guy who wrote the software says in his Youtube video don't worry about switches 8-15 in normal use then already I'm ahead.

    0 0 Reply
  10. Joe Drunk
    Facepalm

    17% use it to strengthen relationships with co-workers

    51% say it helps them get to know their co-workers

    And here I am wasting all my time and money by treating my co-workers to after-hours dinner/drinks, attending co-workers' summer cook-outs and other non-work related personal affairs.

    0 0 Reply

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