IT PRO: Blogs: Nicole Kobie: Manage people, not web use

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Manage people, not web use

Posted in management, internet, social networking on November 13, 2007 at 2:51 pm

Some managers just don’t know what to do with the internet, or their people.

Along with many ways to be more efficient, the web brought with it a lot of ways to kill time: Facebook. Personal email. LOLcats. Reading blogs (slacker!).

Good companies choose to manage their people without contacting the IT department, and only come down hard on such time-wasters if the employee in question isn’t doing enough work. Fair enough.

But others just ban everything.

A friend of mine – and I do actually mean someone other than me, as our publishers aren’t even remotely this silly – works for such a place.

Despite the employees being generally completely run off their feet, working long hours for low pay, and still getting the job done, this company has felt the need to ban all personal use of the internet.

If you want to Facebook, do your banking online, book a train ticket, or send a quick email to your mom, you can do it on your lunch hour – from one shared machine, not the one on your desk.

Employees there – my friend included – are frustrated, and morale is low. They think their boss is an ass.

Talk about poor management. Only a really crap manager, with no web-savvy, no trust in their employees and no clue about their work levels, would do such a thing.

If people need a break from work, they should be allowed to take it. Why is it okay (well, not so much these days) to take a five-minute cigarette break out by the back doors, but not okay to take a five-minute Scrabulous break at your desk?

Sometimes workers – especially those stuck in front of a monitor thinking all day – need to shut off for a few minutes, or just get a chore (like banking) done, before getting back to work.

Managers need to manager people, not their web permissions.

And with that said, time for a turn on Scrabulous… but first: has your employer ever tried to ban online access? And what’d you do about it? Let us know in the comments!