The Many Faces of Mike McBride

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Thursday, June 04, 2009

Maybe they Should Title the Comments "Why Everyone Hates IT"

Why Does IT Hate Facebook and Twitter.

The article itself really doesn't shed much light on why, it just throws out some numbers about the number of IT departments that block them, etc. The comments, on the other hand, are a treasure trove of why people hate their IT departments.

A sampling (with my comments in bold):

Social networking needs to be banned in the business environment. - Because connecting with other people serves no business purpose, right?

I am always amazed how many supposedly employed people have so much time to spend on these distractions. - And IT's role in that situation is.....? Again, if people (stress PEOPLE) are wasting time and not getting their job done, that is not a technology problem! And that's assuming they are wasting time, maybe they're discussing a great idea and how it was implemented at another organization, or following an expert in their field and learning how to be more efficent. Do your server logs tell you this?

Facebook and Twitter and the likes should be banned at work. You are paid to work not play.- And interacting with peers in your field couldn't possibly be work if it's happening online, right?

And my favorite, when someone pointed out the irony of people commenting on a blog about other people wasting time with social networking:

Well played. I justify my participation as professional interaction, at least when I'm responding to the professional topics. That said, I don't see a use for social apps outside those departments that work directly with the public or customers - Marketing, customer and shareholder relations, HR. - His wording implies that it's not always just professional topics that he replies to, but even so, he works in IT, his interactions online are professional even though they aren't with customers, yours are not, period! The high holy IT Director has spoken!

I'm contemplating putting together a series of posts over the next few days/weeks fully exploring the ideas of social networking, personal and professional time, productivity, etc. I've hinted at a number of my own ideas, and I think maybe it's time to put them in a manifesto, so to speak, about how I view the knowledge workers role in a wired business world, and how I think management should view it. I realize that my comments in this and other recent posts hint at a worldview that I may not have ever fully explained, or even thought out completely to myself. Now that I am a manager, albeit a very low level one, I want to do that. You'll get to be the sounding board. :)

Labels: Career, Tech