Company Restrictions on Personal Use of Social Sites

This topic came up on a ListServ I belong to. How would you feel if your company instituted a policy regarding your personal use of social sites (such as FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.) while off duty?

Re: Company Restrictions on Personal Use of Social Sites

While OFF DUTY?
Ummm... no!
Last I checked this was the United States of America.
Nobody tells me what to do in my spare time.
What's next- they tell me I can't drink, watch certain TV shows, read certain books....

NO EFFING WAY!!!

Re: Company Restrictions on Personal Use of Social Sites

Re: Company Restrictions on Personal Use of Social Sites

I think it depends on the industry you are in and how you are using it.

I work in a highly regulated industry, if you are using social networking sites to promote the company and how you do business we have to have our profiles approved, if it is strictly personal we can do what we want.

It is for the protection of consumers in our case......we can not use unapproved letters or brochures for the same reason. It becomes a liability issue for our company.

Re: Company Restrictions on Personal Use of Social Sites

if the connection and the hardware is the company's then they can dictate policy. Also if you are in their enviornment (virtually or physically) they can restrict it.

I can't access LIW or Facebook or twitter here. I don't have access to personal email as well.

Re: Company Restrictions on Personal Use of Social Sites

I work in advertising.. our use of these sites is not restricted at all either at work, or at home.

However, we are forbidden to post/blog/twitter anything relating to any of our clients business. If someone does and it found out, its a fireable offense.

Re: Company Restrictions on Personal Use of Social Sites

Re: Company Restrictions on Personal Use of Social Sites

if they restricted it using my PERSONAL computer, I would have issues, unless I had a top-secret Gov't job like in the CIA - I'm sure all kinds of rules are in place for people in jobs like that.

if it's company equipment, it is their property - they dictate the terms, end of story.

I am pretty sure my job blocks LIF, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other similar sites. the only sites I visit during the day are cnn.com and yahoo.com, oh and my bank too. and I don't make a habit of it. I go there to check the news and my bank acct's every now and then. any company can see what sites you visit and how long you're logged into those sites for.

Re: Company Restrictions on Personal Use of Social Sites

Re: Company Restrictions on Personal Use of Social Sites

on a company network and equipment, they can do and block whatever they want..nuff said

Re: Company Restrictions on Personal Use of Social Sites

I work for the NYC Dept. Of Ed. They block a lot- FB, MySpace, etc. I am fine with it because when I do get on a computer I need to work and if the kids could get on those sites I would have a terrible time with laptop lessons.

Re: Company Restrictions on Personal Use of Social Sites

If it's their computer & their network, absolutely understandable. Other than that it depends on the industry & the reason.

I've seen FB profiles from some employees who friended me. I cut them out the minute I parred down my FB friend list. The last thing I'd want is my customer seeing the person that I am putting on site & they are paying an hourly rate to have drunk on FB or posting inappropriate things.

I think professional image is pretty important & if your name is associated with a company, you should have that profile locked down IMO - for yourself & your company.

I also think it's inappropriate for teachers to "friend" students. Unless it's a homework messageboard, I think it crosses lines.

Re: Company Restrictions on Personal Use of Social Sites

Since the original question wasn't about company assets, and only preventing people from using their home computers on their own time from using FB, etc, I'll address that.

I believe a company can restrict some of the information that you post, such as anything company-related. They can disallow you from discussing anything that happens at work, any projects you are working on, any information that could disparage the company, or give a leg-up to a competitor. However, I don't believe they can make a blanket statement saying you can't do non-work related activities on non-work related computers. Even for people working in Secret areas.

You have to treat your employees as adults, and let them know the policy about work-related topics that can't be discussed, and trust that they will follow company policy. If not, then you can discipline them.

Re: Company Restrictions on Personal Use of Social Sites

Re: Company Restrictions on Personal Use of Social Sites

There are all kinds of security issues allowing access to some of these sites.

My firm doesn't allow them because of this. It keeps the integrity of the network intact.

I think if your firm allows you to access the sites that's great, but if you are connected to their network, it's their rules.

What you do with your own computer, on your own time, with your own connection should be none of their business but we here have a code of conduct at our firm and when talking about firm business we have to keep that in mind.

Message edited 6/17/2009 8:44:31 AM.

Re: Company Restrictions on Personal Use of Social Sites

You can't tell an employee they can't use social networking sites on their own time.

However, you CAN tell them that they cannot use the company name or email address to do so. You can have a confidentiality agreement drawn up about what can and can't be shared about where you work.

I used to work for a well known Long Island business and one day my boss was talking to me about people using their work email for "questionable" things. I asked how he knew. He just searched google for the end of our email address. Like - @companyname.com.

It was shocking what came up. I was amazed at what people did with that email address. I never, EVER use my company email for personal use. It's just not smart.