Disadvantages of Social Networking at the Workplace - Research Paper Example

Disadvantages of Social Networking at the Workplace Introduction The fast advancement of information technology has made internet available to nearly all individuals, institutions of learning, companies as well other social meeting places. As a result, social media has become the most widely used means of social interaction. In this case, many people all over the world are members of one or more social networks. These social sites make many people to remain online for longer periods making friends, sharing experiences, hooking up for dating as well as sharing their opinions concerning contemporary issues. In places of work, this can cause many problems in relation to wasted resources, lack of concentration, lost productivity, unhealthy employee relationships as well as tarnishing of the image of a company. Disadvantages of Social Networking at the Workplace The first major disadvantage of social networking in the workplace is that it leads to reduced Employee Productivity. Considerable research has revealed that due to the demands of social media and the excitement accrued by social networking, most employees will spend more time on the social media sites rather than do productive work. Most of the time, employees entangled with social networking will not often concentrate on their work. They will concentrate more on the social networking. This is because they need to make new friends, share some experiences or reply to some messages. In the long run, the quality of work delivered by such employees becomes very poor thereby reducing the productivity of the entire company. This can cause the company to undergo enormous losses. In addition to spending less time in productive work, such the presence of social networking may cause the employees to loose concentration in their work. In some cases, the employees have internet connection in their offices. This causes some of them to get in to the social networking sites while they work. As a result, they end up loosing much concentration in their work as the social media diverts their attention from productive work to socializing. Some employees would even decline some responsibilities accorded to them if they deem that such responsibilities would reduce the time that they spend on the social networking sites. For instance, an employee might decline out of office responsibilities where he cannot access the internet. The other disadvantage of social networking in places of work involves generation of unhealthy employee relations. In most cases, the employees will interact more in the social media than they do in the open. In this case, some employees within a company might hurt others in the same company. For example if a particular employee feels that another employee has taken up his or her position in the company, he or she may want to sent hurtful messages to the other employee through social networking sites. In some instances, such hurtful and abusive messages may be addressing the affected employee indirectly. In other occasions, a junior employee may send bad messages though the social networking sites concerning his boss. This can hurt the boss in a great way. Unhealthy employee relations may also accrue from issues related to promotion and prestigious positions in a company. For example, one employee might feel that his fellow employee receives favors from the management including undeserved promotion. The other employee can pass messages to all other employees of the company through the social networking sites concerning the issue. In most cases, the messages passed through these social networking sites are often rumors and therefore can tarnish the names of people. It might be impossible for such a person to tarnish the name of his fellow employee by word of mouth. Most people will view the social networking sites as good avenues to pass rumors concerning people that they hate or dislike. This means that rather than social networking strengthening employee relationships in the workplace, it actually destroys these relationships and in most cases generates new unhealthy relationships. Unhealthy relationships might also occur in the form of dating relationships among the employees of the same company or of different companies. In most cases, a company would not wish that its employees start dating relationships as it would reduce professionalism in the work place. An individual might be too shy to approach his fellow workmate for a romantic relationship or may fail to do so due to fear of the management of the company. In this case, the social networking sites would create a good avenue for such a person to generate a romantic relationship with his fellow employee. Once this relationship gains ground, it overflows in to the working place. In this case, the two people in a romantic relationship cannot concentrate on their work but would rather spend much time building their relationship. Allowing social networking in the workplace can also cause a breach in the confidentiality of the company. In this case, some employees might go to the extent of revealing valuable information to the competitors of the company. In such a case, these employees might post status updates concerning upcoming products of the company. If such products or services are in their initial stages of development, the competitors might take advantage and produce similar products before the other company release their own products. This is disadvantageous to the company as such information should be confidential. In other cases, employees might post status updates concerning new advertising strategies generated by their company or which the company intends to use in the near future. In such cases, this valuable and confidential information might leak to the competitors of the company. What follows is that the competitors of such a company devise new advertising and promotion strategies that counter the upcoming strategies developed by the other company. In addition, such competitors might utilize the new strategies developed by the other company before the other company even launches the advertising strategy. This can be very hurtful to the entire company and eve cause enormous losses. Workers might also release business information through the social networking sites that the company keeps confidential and confined within the boundaries of the company. For instance, some information regarding the employees’ salary and other remunerations remains highly confidential for many companies. Some employees might leak this information through the social networking sites. Leakage of information concerning employee salaries might cause departure of productive employees from the company. This is because other individuals may deem that the payment package accorded to the employees is very minimal or that the employees do not deserve such payments. In such a case, productive employees might depart from the company with grounds of poor payment. Another disadvantage of social networking in the place of work entails tarnishing of the company image to the outside world. In some cases, some employees of a particular company may post negative comments concerning their company. Often, such employees feel that the company is degrading them or is not offering them the best services. Even when the company is doing well, such employees will post negative comments concerning the company. The employees who spread such information will not necessarily disclose that they work in such a company. This information can highly tarnish the name of the company and portray a bad image of the company. A good example concerns leaked information regarding treatment of employees by the management. Some individuals might post status updates conveying how their bosses mistreated them or did something negative towards them. For instance, a female employee might claim through the social media that his male boss attempts to sexually abuse her in return of small favors. This is very sensitive information that can highly tarnish the image of the company and even lead to lawsuits. In addition, an employee may spread information that he has not received his or her payment for a couple of months. This would give a chance for the competitors of such a company to destroy their name and public image. Another good example entails employees spreading information concerning the quality of products or services offered by the company. In most cases, the employees have firsthand information regarding the production of products in the company. Some of these employees might spread information through the social networking sites citing unproductive or unlawful methods of product development and production. In such cases, such employee might pass the information regarding the actual processes used in producing the products. Most consumers of the company’s products might divert their attention fro the company due to this leaked information. In other cases, some employees may comment publicly concerning how their bosses treat them. When this information reaches the public, some people twist the information to suit their wishes. For instance, when an employee spreads the information that his boss treats him cruelly, this information can reach regulating authorities. In addition, such information can highly tarnish the image of the entire company as many people will associate the company with treating their employees badly or in a harsh manner. This can cause diverted attention of investors and potential customers. The other disadvantage of social networking in the workplace entails wasted resources and time. When employees spend much time in the social networking sites, they become useless in the company. Some employees might spend half their working hours browsing the internet for social networking. They end up using the resources of the company for unproductive work that do not help the company realize its goals. For example, spending much time in the internet for social networking makes the company incur high costs of the internet. Instead of such employees using the internet for productive work that would help the company, they use it for social networking. At the end of every month, the company pays for internet, which did not help in the realization of its goals. In such a case, the company wastes its resources through unproductive work, which eventually leads to losses. In addition to incurring extra costs for unproductive usage, the company that allows social networking also incurs loss of valuable time. Time is of paramount importance to any company or business. It is the defining factor of accomplishing various tasks and achieving the set goals of the company. In normal cases, employees should utilize every available time for productive work. This is because using valuable time in unproductive activities eventually causes the company to incur losses. Social networking takes away most of this valuable time as the employees spend much time in it rather than in productive work. Social networking sites are very attractive, seductive and addictive. Once a person signs in for the sites, it is very possible that he or she can spend countless of hours in the sites. In the social networking sites, friends often chat for long times. In such cases, an employee can use much of his time chatting with a fellow employee or any other friend through the sites. Even without realizing it, this employee neglects valuable work for a chance to chat and hook up with friends. In addition, many people plan meetings and other occasions through the social networking sites. This causes employees to spend enormous time planning meetings through the social networking sites. Others would even chat for extended hours with their family members overseas. Social networking might also cause a company or individual to fall prey of online scams. With the current advancements kin information technology, there are numerous internet scams that catch people unawares. These scams might even jeopardize the existence of a company. For example an employee might get involved in a secret online transaction using the name of the company. In most cases, such an employee gets motivated by the awesome offers offered by fraudulent people. The employee might disclose valuable information of the company; which may make a company loose a lot of money. This can particularly be very dangerous if it involves a senior employee of the company or one who handle finances and accounts of the company. Such employees have access to the accounts and finances of the company. In such cases, such an employee might transact online business using the name and funds of the company thinking that the transaction will pay awesomely. In the end, when the employee discovers that the transaction was fraud, the company will have already lost large sums of money. Conclusion Although social networking has various advantages, it can cause various problems when allowed in the workplace. Most employees will spend extended periods of time trying to socialize through the social networking sites. This will cause reduced productivity and waste of resources of the company. In addition, social networking leads to unhealthy relationships among employees causing fights and departure of some employees. Social networking may also tarnish the image of the company as well as leaking some confidential information of such a company. Due to these reasons, management of companies and other institutions should restrict the extent at which employees get access to social networking sites at the workplace. They should also be careful with the time that employees spend in the internet. Read More