Would banning personal internet at work increase productivity?

C

colin79ie

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Just wondering if a study has ever been done on this topic.

If all places of work (public and private sector) were to ban the use of the internet for personal/entertainment use during working hours, would productivity increase and hence help to improve our economic outlook?
 
Several ways you could look at this:

People would have more time to do their job. However, they may become less motivated thus reducing their productivity again. Also, they may become more "office sociable" and spend more time chatting to colleagues etc.

Or, most people have deadline on their jobs that get met regardless of what they do or do not do on the internet. These people use the internet to have a mental break before they get back into work.

Personally, I think smoking should be banned. Some people can spend up to an hour a day doing this activity, now that'll eat into your productivity!!
 
Of course it would, the downside of it is that there would be far less traffic on AAM during the working week.!!!!

A company should have an internet usage policy, I don't know any that allow it for "entertainment" use.
 
If there was no internet usage at work then I think people would become more office social as mentioned above..i.e Internet usage would be replaced by something else.
 
I can remember a time when we had no email or net. Yea people found time to waste on other things.
 
colin79ie said:
Just wondering if a study has ever been done on this topic.

If all places of work (public and private sector) were to ban the use of the internet for personal/entertainment use during working hours, would productivity increase and hence help to improve our economic outlook?
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No. I'd kill someone at work if I couldn't take out my frustrations on AAM! And that would not be good for morale or productivity!!
 
It's practically impossible to go at full output all day in the dull-as-ditchwater jobs most of us do. This breaks it up a bit.

As mentioned a) people would find alterative breaks and b) most of these jobs with internet access are output measured rather than input measured, so as long as the job gets done on time it doesnt particularly matter when it got done, or the intensity put into getting it done (especially where no overtime paid). Swings & roundabouts I would say from both the employers and employees point of view.
 
Is the consensus that office-workers are dossers and no matter what steps are take to improve "productivity" they will always revert to their old unproductive ways?

I can remember a time when personal telephone calls (making or receiving same) were banned on the basis of cost and the negative impact on "productivity", whatever that is, yet that thinking seems passé these days.

The Tavistock Institute, http://www.tavinstitute.org/ , amongst others, has done decades of research on this kind of stuff.
 
Depends if your company is results driven or time\task driven. I use the internet during the day for personal use but I always get my work done. The whole area of personal use is blurred a bit too due to the growing use of social networks. They are great for getting contacts and learning about new trends in things while also allowing you to keep contact with friends. For example, twitter is blocked for most people in my place but I have access to it, it has provided loads of greats pieces of info directly related to my role I wouldn't have found out about without it. I dont use it for personal use.

I agree with a previous comment, if the net wasn't there there would be something else people can find to waste time on. It comes down to the individual, are they a good worker or are they a dosser.
 
mathepac said:
Is the consensus that office-workers are dossers and no matter what steps are take to improve "productivity" they will always revert to their old unproductive ways?
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Its more about getting the job done when it needs to get done. There's no assembly line to be manned, and therefore if you stop for a minute the system doesnt break.

Unless there's an absolutely steady flow of work and the hirer has exactly matched the work need with the right mix and quantity of staff then there are always going to be down times. Its not something to be concerned about once the thing works on an annual basis.

One downside is that procrastination is a bit inevitable, at times I think I'd like to be on an assemly line or at least in some job where every day is a clean slate - instead of stuff endlessly hanging around, trying to move it on a bit, leaving it for another day & eventually needing to produce a herculean effort. But about 11 years into working life its gone well so I'm not beating myself up for being imperfect.
 
Mpsox said:
A company should have an internet usage policy, I don't know any that allow it for "entertainment" use.
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Most corporate policies allow 'limited personal use'. A policy stating no personal use would be close to unenforceable.
Leo
 
aristotle25 said:
... if the net wasn't there there would be something else people can find to waste time on. It comes down to the individual, are they a good worker or are they a dosser.
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So maybe the problem is the nature of the work these people do - drudgery, routine, repetitive, with no intrinsic rewards, merely extrinsic ones. If I enjoy my work, why do I need a distraction from it, unless its to relieve the boredom of the work itself?

I believe the problem isn't the internet or phone-calls or anything else, its the reductionist nature of work that's been inadaquately / improperly designed, so mind-numbingly boring with such an unrewarding narrow focus that anything apart from the work is a welcome distraction from just "more of the same", day-in and day-out.
 
I never use the net while at work and I have a desk job with full access. I spend enough time on it while at home so have no desire to use it during the day. Fortunately my job is interesting so it works well (public sector). I can see how banning it could be counter productive if a job is mundane and boring.
 
I don't think there is any case for banning Internet access. I frequently use the web for researching issues, products, queries etc. Our own office environment is fairly tightly firewalled, with all social networking sites banned and all sports topics restricted. I often end up watching work-related youtube materials from home.

It would be nice if there were some automatic facility that worked out the frequency of posts during working hours from those who claim to be under huge pressures at work, working huge hours per week, and automatically corrected their misleading claims.
 
I think if someone's bored, short of work for a couple of hours, or simply needs a break they will find something to distract themselves with. If they weren't on the internet they would probably start chatting to another colleague, preventing them from getting on with their work and distracting other people in the room as well.
 
It would be nice if there were some automatic facility that worked out the frequency of posts during working hours from those who claim to be under huge pressures at work, working huge hours per week, and automatically corrected their misleading claims.
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Not difficult to do on forums for example;)
 
they would just email eachother around the office! or throw paper planes with jokes on them at eachother LOL:D
 
In an office its easy to browse on internet while appearing to be working hard. Your colleagues / boss wouldn't know what you were doing.

Its not as easy to get away with making personal calls, chatting to colleagues etc.
 
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