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Fri
23
Apr
Series: Cyberslacking in the Caribbean Workplace

As Internet technology continues to advance at an amazing rate, each wave of change it brings has an impact on how we both live and work in many ways, some are very much welcomed and of course some we rather do without. In most workplaces today the Internet has become somewhat indispensable. It can be considered as a focal point for communication where for example it aids collaboration among employees and also as a productivity booster where it reduces the time we take to perform many tasks. However, on the flip side there is also the growing concern that some employees abuse and misuse this resource. In agreement, Blanchard and Henle (2007) have cited some compelling evidence which suggests that these concerns are well founded. Greengard (2002) found that in 2000, 56% of employees were using the Internet for personal reasons and by 2003 Griffiths (2003) reported that 59% of workplace Internet usage was not work related. As recent as 2005 cyberslacking was considered as the most common way employees wasted time at work (Malachowski, 2005). According to researchers (e.g., Greenfield & Davis, 2002; Mills, Hu, Beldona, & Clay, 2001), the average time spent on cyberslacking often range from little over 3hrs per week to 2.5hrs per day.

So what is cyberslacking?

Cyberslacking, sometimes referred to as cyberloafing (Lim, 2002) has been defined as “employees’ non-work related use of company provided email and Internet while working”. However, with the increasing use of Blackberry messenger and other smart phone Internet-based services in the region, I prefer to extend this definition to include all Internet connections. So I subscribe to Whitty and Carr’s (2006) view of cyberslacking where it is seen as “the overuse of the Internet in the workplace for purposes other than work”. Cyberslacking goes by many names: cyberbludging (Mills, Hu, Beldora & Clay, 2001), non-work related computing (NWRC Bock, Quan, Liu & Sun, 2007) and lastly, cyberloafing (Lim, 2002). Remember being called or calling someone else a slacker? Usually we use this label to refer to those who avoid doing work or putting in the amount of effort necessary to get a job done. This at times included the long telephone chatters, people who take long lunches, those who gathered around the water cooler chatting and perhaps also those who couldn’t get enough of the rest-room. Now in recent times, it’s the Facebookers, online ‘window’ shoppers, online gamblers, illegal downloaders, those who look at pornography at work (e.g., news broke about SEC employees today) and many more variations thereof. Nonetheless, as you can appreciate, not all infractions of this nature should be regarded with the same degree of gravity and consequences. Therefore, some researchers (e.g., Anandarajan, Devine, Simmers, 2004) found it fitting to group these behaviours into 3 main categories; not perfect but handy for now. Firstly, disruptive cyberloafing refers to those who for instance visit adult web sites and play online games in the workplace. Secondly, recreational cyberloafing speaks to employees who engage in online shopping (including ‘window’ shopping) and purposeless surfing. Lastly, personal learning cyberloafing includes visiting professional groups and searching for news about current affairs including that of the organisation as well.

The agenda

Over the next few days I’ll be covering issues pertaining to cyberslacking in the Caribbean workplace. Using research and pertinent theories in the area this series will include a light-hearted discussion with regards to the real problem cyberslacking poses to the workplace and also the benefits it offers to employees and by extension company operations. Additionally, I’ll chat about why employees ‘turn to a life of cyberslacking’ and what are some of the best ways to deal with it within the Caribbean workplace both from a personal and managerial perspective.

Doing your bit

One of the best ways we can guarantee that this discussion is beneficial to everyone, it is by including everyone in this discussion. We all want and need to hear your (employees and managers) views on the matter. Please do not neglect to share as you would be doing everyone a huge disservice including yourself. You can leave comments anonymously or otherwise, really doesn’t matter. Additionally, comments are not initially moderated, they are posted immediately and you can also modify your comments (excluding those made anonymously) later if you wish.

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  • Marcie
    There is a grave temptation to access the internet during work hours for personal use and this definitely impacts negatively on productivity and effectiveness in the workplace. That said, employers are now addressing the problem by blocking access to various social networks and there is a lot more monitoing of indiscrimininate access during work hours.

    I think for the most part employees at all levels waste a lot of time and are totally distracted to the point where they lose track of time, priorities and even the fact that they are at work.

    It will take a high level of discipline on the part of employees to avoid the misuse and abuse of their freedom to access the internet and other networks while at work.......... the question is....... can they?


  • Sophia Browne
    Realistically, no one can spend 8 hours at a job and not use the Internet for personal purposes at all. Of course people need a breather. The thing is many people are unaware of how much can be tracked and that when you use your work computer to do certain things, those things no longer become personal/private and can be scrutinized by the employer.

    An employer can have built in firewalls which track every website an employee visits, how long they stay on the site, what messengers or chats they are using and much more. Anything you save on a work computer is also not private to you either and your company email also belongs to the employer.

    On the flip side of this, an employer can also be liable for what an employee does with the work computer and email as well. Many employers and employees are not aware of what is set out in the Computer Misuse Act and everyone should start there.

    This is another perspective on the whole issue, besides productivity they are many implications for both the employer and the employee regarding the use of work computers and the internet.
  • Ingridkh
    Excellent topic, I agree with Khary. Employers need to concentrate holistically on employee productivity, however the most productive and ambitious employee will still utilize the internet at work.
    Many organizations have excellent employee selection procedures but that does not always stop unambitious or unproductive employee from getting in..

    Many employers' do block signals from the premises, among other things and that is not good, this can lead to a number of work-related issues: 1) tardiness 2) absenteeism, even staff turnover etc. Employees who are furthering their education may need to access the internet while at work, perhaps to communicate with family, or just to take a breather.

    Employers should find another solution in dealing with this matter. The internet is a global sytem used for a variety of things and it keeps getting better... Hoever the issue has to be addressed now and not later. I can go on and on... There are so many aspects to this topic.
  • ianWi
    I think that as this technology is still in its infancy stage, everyone has been jumping on the bandwagon they have to keep abreast of now, It makes they hard day at work go a little easier..a little distraction ..Over time this will be phased out as companies come up to speed with this technology and they will enforce new guidelines to follow.
  • Very much so, I believe that management should take a step back and look at this behaviour in context as opposed to demonising it along with other things related to new technologies that they're relatively uncertain about. As I go on I will be hashing out all these issues, stay tuned.
  • Khary
    Maybe because I'm guilty of personal learning cyberloafing, I think trying to eliminate cyberloafing is a waste of time. Employees will find a way to waste time, and indeed no one can possibly be productive for the entire 8 hours of the work day. I think even the most conscientious employees do engage in cyberslacking, but hardly ever to the detriment of doing work. Those employees who overdo it are the ones who are coming late/leaving early, taking 'sick' days and those who would generally find ways of being unproductive if we were living in the stone age!

    Omar raises an interesting point about the work/life blurring though...we spend the majority of our week in work, which makes work our second (or for some of us, first) home. Due to time constraints there are sometimes personal matters which must be dealt with during the course of the work day and the internet can sometimes aid in these.

    Attacking cyberloafing is convenient though because this is one aspect of employee behavior that management can somewhat control. In my opinion though it's a limited measure of control. There will always be a way to waste time on the internet, and the IT departments of the world would be way in over their heads if they concentrated on trying to prevent time wastage on the net. Employers can't stop people from talking, from going to the bathroom, sitting at their desk reading the newspaper etc, but they can stop you from visiting facebook on your work computer. Too bad that smartphones are making the desktop obsolete, so that cyberpolicing is really just a minor inconvenience.

    Employers need to concentrate holistically on employee productivity. They need establish a realistic
    definition of productivity, and even from the hiring process ensure that they gain and train employees who are goal oriented, self-driven and are able to produce results in a timely manner.
  • Firstly, thanks for your perspective from an employee's standpoint, very honest and helpful in getting us to see the true issues and challenges presented by 'cyberslacking'.

    Excellent point with regards to being able to do some personal business online at work that otherwise would've probably caused an employee to take a half day or a whole day off ultimately negatively impacting productivity. Also, as you said pertaining to cyberpolicing, this too is definitely slowly but surely becoming useless as regional adoption of smartphones and the like is on the increase. Nonetheless, they can perhaps take measures to block such signals from the premises and what then will we do? Would we lobby for the right to Internet access? In Finland this is a reality but we're in the Caribbean and I won't doubt that some employers wouldn't mind taking such measures to merely be in control rather than mainly as a way to increase productivity.

    Additionally, there is a need to rethink how people perform their jobs in the workplace and as you hinted to, a focus on productivity and one's actual performance in their role. That said, cyberslacking can still be a problem in the workplace as some forms of the behaviour can be harmful to the organisation, such as copyright infringement by illegally downloading music. Thanks for your views Khary, excellent contribution as always.
  • Sophia Browne
    Dealing with cyber slacking starts from the top, bosses and employees alike have great difficulty separating personal from business, it is sometimes difficulty to make someone understand that a business computer should be for business usage, even using company email for personal purposes is a big no no.

    I am sure you would hear from many technicians how the prime culprits for searching porn sites are bosses or managers.

    Also, many companies are unaware as to how their computers are being used, they don't have clear IT policies and guidelines and in most cases may not even have a proper IT infrastructure.
  • Sophia you are right on all accounts. However, I believe that technological advancement and the increase in employees' competency levels in this domain have a lot to do with your current line of thought. Before when many persons didn't own a computer or have access to the Internet at home, I believe it was somewhat permissible in the workplace. Sending a personal email was not considered in a negative light once it was on the up-and-up and plus individuals didn't explore too much at that time. Now today as we are hyper-connected and persons are more skilled at using such technologies they've become more relaxed. Also, considering that there seems to be a 'collapse of context' where persons (mostly the younger generation) apparently loose their 'sense of place' the lines are more or less becoming blurred.

    As I go on with this series I'll be looking at putting together a profile for the typical offender, however, research that I'm going through now does show that MOST of the time bosses are indeed the culprits for cyberslacking. Before seeing those research findings I would've said lower status employees were the main culprits, especially after factoring in competency levels but hey.

    Definitely some companies are unaware of their computer and Internet usage but in many cases in addition to having no policies, existing policies are poorly communicated or deemed as important, in my opinion. Fundamentally, I believe this is a problem that should be dealt with by HR managers and accordingly I'm tailoring this series to these people but in a way that everyone (especially employees) could pitch in.

    Thanks for getting the ball rolling btw :)
  • OmarBD
    Are we tackling this problem from the wrong angle?

    All the best policies in the world to define cyberslacking and define what the employee should and shouldn't do are great, but fail miserably in practice. And it is no longer as simple as barring employees access totally to the internet as more spheres of work migrate to become "knowledge work" this constant on demand access to the internet will be at a premium.

    Also have you considered in your analysis the work life blurring that is occurring in society and the implications that this is having for how we use current technologies? How will the future decentralization of work impact on "cyberslacking"?

    I'm approaching the topic from the above perspectives because, i'm wondering if potentially we have to change the way the organization fundamentally works and realign organizational objectives with personal incentives and motivations.
  • One of the main reasons policies fail is because policies are sporadically enforced and that there is a bit of contradiction where management maybe be doing the same things they condemn. My upcoming post will discuss this further.

    Additionally, as I told Sophia, I believe the lines are being blurred between professional and social contexts because of technology, and that some individuals aren't adept at managing this effectively. Thus we have this problem.
  • Sophia Browne
    Your welcome, I look forward to the other posts.
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