More than half of US companies do not allow employees to visit social networks such as Facebook, MySpace or Twitter while at work, a new survey said.
Fifty-four percent of the chief information officers (CIOs) for 1,400 companies surveyed across the US said workers were “prohibited completely” from visiting social networks while on the job.
Nineteen percent said employees were allowed to visit social networks “for business purposes only” while 16 percent said they allowed “limited personal use.”
Ten percent of those surveyed said there were no restrictions on visiting social networks at work.
The survey of 1,400 companies with at least 100 employees was released this week and was conducted by an independent research firm for Robert Half Technology, a California-based provider of information technology professionals. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percent.
Dave Willmer, executive director of Robert Half Technology, said “using social networking sites may divert employees’ attention away from more pressing priorities, so it’s understandable that some companies limit access.”
“For some professions, however, these sites can be leveraged as effective business tools, which may be why about one in five companies allows their use for work-related purposes,” he said.
Meanwhile, a Taiwanese factory has fired three workers for playing the Facebook game Happy Farm during working hours, press reports said yesterday.
Hanyale Industry Co (漢育工業), an auto parts factory in Changhwa County, sacked the three workers after catching them playing the Happy Farm game despite the plant management’s warning against it, cable TV channel CTI reported.
“We have warned workers that during working hours, they cannot look at Web sites unrelated to our work,” manager Liao Wen-hsin (廖文信) said.
But the three workers plan to sue the factory, arguing that Happy Farm is not a sex video game and they were just relaxing.
Facebook has been growing in popularity in Taiwan. Happy Farm is currently the most popular online game in the nation, with some 3.3 million Taiwanese playing it, many during working hours.
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