All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy

We all know that it is imperative to have some fun at work.  Water cooler conversations, impromptu basketball games (that’s our office fun), reading web comics, surfing eBay, and so on are all ways that different people take little breaks at work.  When it’s under control, it can lead to increased productivity.  But when is enough too much?  Have any fantasy footballers in your organization?  How much time do they spend online, researching for their league as opposed to working?  You might be unpleasantly surprised.  According to one study:

Fantasy football will cost U.S. employers $9.2 billion in lost work time this season, a private research group said.
Business researchers Challenger, Gray & Christmas said Monday the 17-week National Football League schedule will subtract 1.19 hours of productivity per week from about 17 million Americans who participate.

1.19 hours of lost productivity per employee is probably not a statistic to get too concerned about.  If that’s the only thing they waste time on, then chances are, it is a much needed break from work.  But, what happens if it is more than 1.19 hours.  And what if it is something less harmless than fantasy football?

Content Filtering

In this scenario, the term “content filtering” refers to locking down websites that people within your network can access.  It’s always a good idea to block sites which promote things unacceptable in the workplace, such as gambling, nudity, and violence.  In addition to lost productivity, employees viewing these types of sites can lead to legal hassles that you would probably rather not deal with.  Some organizations have a “we trust our employees” mentality.  I am certainly not suggesting that there is anything wrong with that.  One question I would pose to those organizations – is there any security around your confidential files?  Why?  If you trust your employees….

Good or bad, there’s a lot to worry about in any business environment.  Leveraging the power of content filtering can help you prevent inappropriate websites from becoming a problem.  It can also help otherwise acceptable websites from becoming a problem, too!

What’s Coming Soon?

Today’s post was a short one.  (I know at least some of you are thankful, right?)  I’m going to meet a colleague to discuss some SharePoint topics.  Woo-hoo!  Yes, I do still get excited talking about SharePoint.  I’m building out a new SharePoint deck, focusing on business value, for an upcoming SharePoint seminar I am delivering on May 19th at the Microsoft office here in Bloomington.  (It’s for Mavidea, not Microsoft.)  As I am working on this, plan to see some information about how SharePoint can help you in your organization!

 

Technorati Tags: Content filtering,security,Internet