Social Networks In The Workplace

Social networking has substantially increased in the past few years, whether for finding a job or staying connected with old friends. I chose this topic because I like to use social networks as much as the next person and I have seen it positively and negatively affect leaders while working. Using social networks in the office is something that I will monitor and limit or even exclude from my desk/office so I could work more efficiently, unless it is a part of my job. I believe that social networks should be allowed by leaders in the office as long as they are to be used in benefiting the company. I do not believe that social networks should be allowed to be used in the office if it is for pure enjoyment, because at that point the employee …show more content…
There are also many ethical issues that can be intruded upon by leaders/businesses searching for employees, or co-workers trying to find information on someone else in that company. When social networks are properly moderated by the leader, the employees in the business will most likely become more efficient and valuable. Social networking allows leaders to get news out to the public quicker and help them obtain more business.
There are many advantages that come from leaders/businesses allowing the use of social networks. What Are the Pros of Using Social networks at Work is an article written by Kristine Tucker, in the article she discusses the positives of social networks in the office including: customer service, internal communication, real-time communication, and targeted …show more content…
If every employee in a 50-strong workforce spent 30 minutes on a social networking site every day, that would work out to a loss of 6,500 hours of productivity in one year!...” (2014) Kelleher also slightly mentions that even though the updates from the sites might not take long the cost of internet browsing is a disadvantage social networks is. “This threat is often overlooked by organizations. Hackers are attracted to social networking sites because they see the potential to commit fraud and launch spam and malware attacks. There are more than 50,000 applications available for Facebook (according to the company) and while Facebook may make every effort to provide protection against malware, these third-party applications may not all be safe…” (2014) is Kelleher’s thought of the negative effect of viruses and malware. Kelleher talks about social engineering and that thieves are turning it into a fine art and stealing people identity theft, company data, and many other threats that are occurring due to social engineering. The last topic he talked about is reputation and legal liability and this is what Kelleher said about it, “At then time of authorship, there have been no major corporate lawsuits involving evidence from social networking sites.