Web Surfing Helps at Work

The Wall Street Journal published a piece recently on how use of the Internet for non-business purposes increases productivity.

Web browsing can actually refresh tired workers and enhance their productivity, compared to other activities such as making personal calls, texts or emails, let alone working straight through with no rest at all.

As security professionals, we are usually in the business of locking down employees from surfing the internet. As a consultant, I’m often asked how many companies block Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and other sites whose only harm is as a time waster.

I usually recall a story from a few years ago when I was sitting at the airport waiting for my flight when I heard a passenger complain about how their company blocks Hotmail. The passenger proceeded to explain that they walked to the hotel across the street and used the internet kiosk to check their mail. (This was before smartphones were all the rage.) At some point, the controls we put in place result in lower productivity, not greater.

Next time you are having the discussion about whether to block access to a particular website, consider the following:

• Today, your employee is just as likely to use a site like Facebook or Gmail from their smartphone as they are from their work computer. Wouldn't you rather know what they are doing?
• As security professionals, we should protect the organization and not prevent employees from time wasters.

As it turns out, those time wasters could make them more productive.

As originally posted at jayschulman.com on August 31, 2011.