It started with the headline every Gen Y or Net Generation office worker wanted to read – “Why your employer shouldn’t ban Facebook”.
That really set the tone. Basically ‘Why your boss is an out-of-touch old meanie who doesn’t understand how important it is to be in touch with your friends 24/7, even in the time they’re paying you for.’
So what was the good news? Well, an internet company had done a survey of 300 office workers to find out what they felt wasted their time most. And the good news was that it wasn’t social media. Hallelujah!
The real culprit, it turned out, was water cooler chats with colleagues. And meetings.
Then the next bit of good news — social media actually increase your productivity by give you some downtime at work. Wow! Amazeballs! Get this to the fuddy duddy old boss now!
It would be pretty amazing if it were true. But it most likely isn’t.
How do I know this? Because a cursory look at the methodology of this “survey” shows that it’s the biggest waste of time. Why?
1. This is all self-reported data — no independent observation or data
from qualified survey workers. So it’s all opinion and very little, if any,
fact.
2. That water cooler time that the kids clearly hate so much has been
shown by multiple rigorous surveys over decades to be a useful way for ideas to
cross-fertilise between co-workers and departments in organisations. So much so
that some companies have designed their office spaces to encourage such meetings
in order to promote innovation. It’s also a useful social lubricant, helping
build teams, which in turn enhances productivity.
The biggest lesson here? As all good journalists have been
told for a number of years, treat all survey results with scepticism and hold
back on reporting their findings until you’ve checked out the methodology and
the interpretation of the data.P.S. Am I arguing for a Facebook ban? No - some break time on Facebook should be allowed, but allowing it subsume the normal, human face-to-face relationships in offices is unhealthy for the workplace and the people in it.
