Businesses crack down on use of Facebook and YouTube at work, Canstar Blue survey reveals

IF YOU’RE reading this at work right now, your job could be on the line. Aussie bosses are getting fed up with workers browsing away the work day.

IF YOU’RE reading this at work right now, you could be at risk of being fired.

New figures reveal Aussie businesses are cracking down hard on web use at work, whether it’s Facebook or Twitter, banking or catching up on the news.

A survey by consumer research company Canstar Blue reveals one in three small business owners are so fed up with their staff’s misuse of the net that they have banned social media at work.

The crackdown is understandable when you consider that more than a third of young people are spending more than three hours a day surfing the net when they should be working, according to the findings. One in five said they spent more than four hours online a day.

News.com.au asked its Facebook followers yesterday what their experience of using the web at work was and they agreed workplaces were becoming stricter.

Social media blocks on work computers are common, and some employers have even banned the use of phones during work hours.

Businessman Peter Verberne has a hard-line stance on the issue. “In my business if you are caught you are warned once, if caught again you are sacked. Simple. Do it on you own dollar and not mine,” he posted to the news.com.au Facebook page.

Others felt the crackdowns were too harsh.

“What’s next? A note from the boss to use the bathroom? Seriously! Work takes up the majority of people’s time and they will not work back to 8pm if they cannot check the news or Facebook,” Melissa Lea wrote.

“Smokers are entitled to smokers break so why not 10 mins social media break?” Maria De Ionno said.

THE EMPLOYEE

Our Facebook follower Andrew said he was fired from his job at a surveying and mapping company in Perth for using Facebook and the web.

Like most of us, Andrew used the web for personal use sparingly during work time — confining it to breaks and using his own personal phone — but his employer still deemed this excessive.

“It was totally unfair. I was doing my work during work time,” Andrew said. “I think I was bullied; that was just the reason they used (to fire me).”

His case should be seen as a warning for others.

“Just don’t use (the internet) in any form. Don’t use social media at work. Only use it when you’re right out of the building and use your own, personal phone,” Andrew said.

“I think there’s a lot of businesses out there being really unfair and they are just using it as an excuse to dismiss (staff).”

THE BOSS

One Facebook follower said he had cut off his business’s wi-fi and blocked workers’ access to all social media sites and YouTube because the net was proving too distracting.

“I have a very high data usage for the type of work we do; I don’t need employees to cap my plan in four days streaming videos, reading gaming websites etc, when they could be sweeping the floor,” Justin Priestley said.

“At one point I confiscated phones because they were messing up too much work from being distracted. Until they can prove they can work and hit targets without phones, it’s a big ‘no’ from me.”

THE EXPERTS

Brisbane-based information technology consultant Geoff Ingram said his company had experienced a massive increase in call-outs to businesses to deal with staff internet usage problems.

He said it was easy to pinpoint which staff were using the web excessively by tracking data levels — and part-time workers were some of the worst offenders.

Mr Ingram said YouTube ate up the most data.

“Up until a couple of years ago, it wasn’t too big a drama. Particularly in the last 12 months, we are getting a lot of call-outs about it,” he said.

Mr Ingram said employers needed to set clear expectations with their workers.

“It’s important to have an acceptable usage document that staff sign because, if you don’t, staff can do what they like and you’ve got no recourse,” he said.

He said staff members should treat internet usage the same way they treat private phone calls at work — one here and there isn’t going to trouble anyone, but too much and you could land yourself in trouble.

Rob Stevenson from Australian Workplace Lawyers said most small businesses owners did not have adequate systems in place to supervise internet use.

“Some small employers feel — I think rightly — that it is simpler to have a blanket ban in place, rather than having to enforce a subjective reasonableness test on a case-by-case basis,” he said. “Of course, it is one thing to have a policy, whether written or unwritten, and it is another to enforce it.”

THE SURVEY

The Canstar Blue survey has also uncovered that the younger your boss is, the more likely they are to keep a close eye on your internet use.

The results show that 44 per cent of generation Y managers have banned social media at work, compared to less than a third of Baby Boomer bosses.

Beyond social media, one in five bosses said their staff were too liberal with their personal use of the internet in general.

The survey questioned more than 850 small business owners across Australia.

Do you think businesses need to crack down on their workers’ internet use? Comment below or join the conversation on Twitter @newscomauHQ.

Originally published as Businesses crack down on use of Facebook and YouTube at work, Canstar Blue survey reveals