Facebook is costing “businesses dear”

BBC is reporting on a report on Facebook.

Workers who spend time on sites such as Facebook could be costing firms over £130m a day, a study has calculated. According to employment law firm Peninsula, 233 million hours are lost every month as a result of employees “wasting time” on social networking.

Doing anything socially costs time (which in business terms means money). However a happy employee is often more productive than a miserable one.

In terms of learning institutions, should we be banning Facebook? We create physical social areas in our learning institutions, we have a cafe and a refectory for example, why not allow students to interact socially online? There is a hit on bandwidth and access to computers, true, but is that the only thing we need to take into account.

Is using Facebook (and other social networking sites) a problem that needs to be dealt with and “banned” or is it something that the majority of users use sensibly and get a lot from?

3 thoughts on “Facebook is costing “businesses dear””

  1. It’s not only something that learners can get a lot from, it’s also, potentially, a platform for learning. Of course, people will fool around too. But the difference is, at university they’re paying 🙂

  2. Sadly there will always be those that seeek to impose ways of working/learning upon others, there will always be those who are too short-sighted to see the potential benefit of a happy employee/learner and there will always be those who are just downright obstructive. They used to say email wasted time . . .

    We don’t have to listen to them – – –

    David

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