I totally agree, and have done for years. We don't block any sites other than blatantly illegal or harmful stuff, and our culture means that people feel free to dip in and out of their various social networks, which, after today particularly, are going to be a huge benefit to the business.
I know a lot of IT managers who insist on blocking social media, but I've never seen the point. If someone isn't doing any work, it's not the responsibility of IT to police them and take away their toys - it's their line manager who should step in.
If someone in your business isn't working, and instead just sitting and staring out of the window, do you brick the window up, or ask them to do some work?
hey Christian thanks for the name check so here is a few thoughts:
IT departments are constantly being asked to "monitor" and "manage" staff productivity to such an extent that I wonder what roles departmental managers and team leaders have if the they constantly ask the IT department to supplement their Leadership and team management skills. In my mind it is a failure of managerial and team leader skills to create productive and effective teams if they resort to desktop control practices.
The IT Department should not be responsible for the lack of skills in other employees or managers if should be focussed on ensuring availability of technical infrastructure and it can do this and still enable freedom of its users.
The role of IT Security should be in controlling and monitoring external access coming into the network not internal access going out, to be fulfilling such a role is to be nothing more than a Digital Prison Guard and the employees are the inmates.
I have been managing over 200 desktops in the last 10 years and have not had to implement such restrictions and still delivered uptime and network access.
I totally agree, and have done for years. We don't block any sites other than blatantly illegal or harmful stuff, and our culture means that people feel free to dip in and out of their various social networks, which, after today particularly, are going to be a huge benefit to the business.
I know a lot of IT managers who insist on blocking social media, but I've never seen the point. If someone isn't doing any work, it's not the responsibility of IT to police them and take away their toys - it's their line manager who should step in.
If someone in your business isn't working, and instead just sitting and staring out of the window, do you brick the window up, or ask them to do some work?
IT departments are constantly being asked to "monitor" and "manage" staff productivity to such an extent that I wonder what roles departmental managers and team leaders have if the they constantly ask the IT department to supplement their Leadership and team management skills. In my mind it is a failure of managerial and team leader skills to create productive and effective teams if they resort to desktop control practices.
The IT Department should not be responsible for the lack of skills in other employees or managers if should be focussed on ensuring availability of technical infrastructure and it can do this and still enable freedom of its users.
The role of IT Security should be in controlling and monitoring external access coming into the network not internal access going out, to be fulfilling such a role is to be nothing more than a Digital Prison Guard and the employees are the inmates.
I have been managing over 200 desktops in the last 10 years and have not had to implement such restrictions and still delivered uptime and network access.
Again thanks for your comment.