As a manager, what restrictions would you put on personal media use at work? Why?

Around 60% of cellphones used in the world are the smartphones. It is believed that these numbers are increasing and hence it is considered hard to stop their usage even in the workplace. Employees use their personal devices for stay in touch with their families and to communicate with the friends and peers. Social media accounts are also often checked when someone has access to the internet and smartphones. However, it might typically hurt a business as the excessive use of personal and social media can emerge as a big distraction for employees. There are examples of companies i.e. FedEx which have completely banned the cellphone and social media usage at work (SHOULD EMPLOYERS RESTRICT PERSONAL DEVICE USE AT WORK?, 2014).

Focusing on the above mentioned scenario and as being a manager, I would not completely restrict the social and personal media usage. Instead, I will find a way which is falling somewhere between the both extremes of excessive usage of personal media or banning it totally at all. The restrictions and limitations which I will put will start from making it about performance. I will look up at the performance of workers and will consider that even most of employees are using personal and social media few times a day and they are still producing great results, it is not a big deal then (Infosec, 2014).

However, I will set reasonable limits where I will make sure that the employees understand that personal device use at work is not completely allowed but they can stay in touch with social and personal life few times a day, only in the case if it is not affecting their work performance. Personal and social media etiquettes will be enforced where employees will be asked to use common sense about when to use their cell phones and when to not.

Bibliography

Infosec. (2014). Restricting social media at work . Retrieved from Infosec Institute Resources: http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/restricting-social-media-at-work/

SHOULD EMPLOYERS RESTRICT PERSONAL DEVICE USE AT WORK? (2014). Retrieved from Commonplaces: http://www.commonplaces.com/blog/should-employers-restrict-personal-device-use-at-work/