Lack of Facebook as a potential reason to quit job?

Ann All from It BusinessEdge wrote a blog entry responding to a survey that indicated at least 39% of 18-24 year old workers would consider quitting their jobs if Facebook was filtered out/banned at work. 16 percent of 25-to-65-year-olds say they would consider the same. She feels that the workers need to grow up and offers various reasons including stress on a company network, to the fact that she feels a large amount of time on facebook is spent on sports and games. Of course Digg caught the article and twisted in new opinionated ways.

Many of the people commenting seem to feel the same way, and that an employee that might consider such should be fired. She ends the post stating, “In another decade, a lot more workplaces may look like Google.”

Is being like Google in your hiring practices a bad thing? Google is hiring probably some of the smartest and innovative people available. If those people can still function and poke someone back on Facebook once a day, then go for it.

From my personal experience, she is wrong as are most of the commenters. I just miss the 18-24 group by a year, but still feel that I can comment on my time in jobs in those six years.

In my mind a company that restricts internet access has a few problems. First, they likely don’t trust employees, and they likely don’t have good employees or management. Also it is a sign of a slow and stagnated corporate culture generally that is either just floating by, or not really growing very well.

So my jobs from 18-24, and how they related to internet access and comments on the general corporate culture. Of course, many of these years predate Facebook

• 18:
  • Guilford County Information Services: Super restrictive internet access. Even looking up something on Rock Climbing pulled up a porn filter as I guess some keyword set it too. Super control, everything restrictive. A government entity, no innovation, no growth, stagnation. No long term connections or friends made
  • Washington Printing Supplies: Small company, no restrictions on internet access. I did well there, made some of the best money I have ever made, got a ton done and generally didn’t waste much time. I still occasionally keep touch with some people from here and maintain social connections
• 19:
  • RoadRunner/Time Warner Cable: No restrictions, but a general attitude against person web use. Not a growing company. I can’t even name anyone that I know that still works there. We know they are against Net Neutrality.
  • Office Max: Restricted internet access. Large company. Little productivity by any employee. Horrid Management. They went bankrupt a few months after I quit. No long lasting social connections.
• 20: Taylor’s recording studio: Super small company, no restrictions. I helped to grow a (still) successful recording studio and start it on a path for yet more success in an industry that is otherwise failing. Many long lasting connections, recommendations, and friends
• 22: MacPherson Group: Small company. Growing relatively slowly. No restrictions, but internet access no encouraged for personal use/time. No lasting social connections.
• 23: State Street Bank: Restricted internet access. Very slow growth as a company. No innovation, period. No lasting social connections even though I worked with 200 people on my floor.
• 24: Portrait Innovations: Restricted/banned internet access generally, low level employees, high turnover. Growth as a company, but never for employees. Negative innovation. A few lasting social connections from training only.
• 25: Jazkarta: No restrictions on internet access. All Open Source/Free Software. Massive growth from time started. High productivity. High use of social networking. Super innovative environment/company. New ideas everywhere. I have never had a social network of friends so large.

The general trend I have seen in my personal time working is this: Slower growing, less innovative companies that generally hire worse employees will have restrictions on their internet access because they do not trust their employees. They want their employees to complete a specified task, and that is all. No research needed, no new ideas wanted, no innovation. This generally leads towards high turnover and slow growth. Also there are few to no long term lasting social connections made from these companies.

On the flip side companies that embrace the thoughts, skills, interest, uniqueness and autonomy of their employees including providing them unfettered internet access and full choice of what computers/software they want to use do rather well. They have new ideas, fast growth, strong social bonds that last a lifetime. Good things happen.

At the same time, I realize that many people in the 18-24 group have really crappy jobs that basically just require that you complete a repetitive task. I feel I’ve been lucky and for the most part (asides from OfficeMax and Portrait Innovations) avoided those. Do you want a cashier on Facebook in a high volume store? Likely not. At the same time, many companies could benefit from stronger social connections between employees. Our company (Jazkarta) has a Facebook group among other such pages.

Many of those other companies restricting internet access haven’t caught up to the times. They don’t use Twitter for customer service, or Facebook. They don’t understand what a Wiki is, or how to make a PodCast. They don’t know how to really monitor customer satisfaction or connect with customers. The only marketing they understand is a billboard or TV commercial. Everything is one way with them. They also likely don’t embrace employees blogging.

So would I quit a job if they banned Facebook? No. Not just Facebook, but I would have a serious conversation with them trying to figure out why they had and then perhaps depending on their reasoning consider quitting. If it’s because they don’t trust me, then I’d quit. If it was for some security/network reason… I might ask why their network sucks so much or what the security issue is and how we can fix it.

I would however not consider for a moment working for a company that doesn’t embrace Social Media technologies overall. If email is new to the company (hello, 1961 is calling and wants their technology back) then I wouldn’t work there. Companies need to move with the times.

Oh and Ann… if all companies looked like Google the world would be a better place.

EDIT: Also, let’s not forget that many companies base their entire businesses off Facebook. I have some friends that run a (venture backed) Virtual Goods company. Should they stay off of Facebook. Should other people promoting social networking applications stay off facebook? What if we are writing API things for it or trying to integrate?

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 12:14 pm and is filed under life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.