How to Handle Employees Playing Games and Using Facebook at Work? Seeking Advice!

Hi, the HR department has issued a memo to restrict employees from playing games, using Facebook, etc., during office hours recently. However, this memo does not show any improvement for those who always play. Moreover, these employees have exceeded our tolerance level, causing a bad influence on other employees and seriously affecting their work performance. Please advise.

Addressing Employee Engagement and Productivity

Employees play games on platforms like Facebook because they have time to do so. Have you conducted an analysis of their workload? Additionally, have you provided personal feedback to the employees? Instead of issuing an official memo, it is essential to seek agreement from the employees to ensure that they invest their time in quality activities rather than engaging in games and social media.

Furthermore, you may consider restricting access to social media. However, social media itself is not inherently negative; the key lies in how it is utilized. To address this, you could designate specific computers with access to social media. Employees could allocate some time to browse Facebook or play games, but the duration should be limited.

Fostering a Culture of Learning and Innovation

Nonetheless, the issue at hand is cultural. Problems of this nature often arise when companies lack a culture of learning or innovation. Self-directed learning is the most effective form of learning. Set targets for employees to master a particular skill each quarter, with examinations at the end of each quarter. Alternatively, challenge employees to introduce something new every quarter. Additionally, provide incentives for learning implementation. Encourage employees to translate theoretical knowledge from books into practical applications in their daily work. This task is challenging but worthwhile.

Thank you,

Dinesh V Divekar

There are software solutions available to give or restrict internet access. Ask your IT team to look into it. We are using Cyberoam firewall and IMS. Everyone has their own login and password. You may be allowed internet access, but I may not have access to Facebook and all sites.

Utilize technology to maximize benefits by monitoring who is accessing what.

Most organizations block social networking sites, as mentioned by Ravi. On a lighter note, how do you access CiteHR during office hours?

Pon

Issue letters to all such employees and ask them to refrain from using social networking sites; otherwise, action may be initiated. If they don't have work, then you have to ensure that they are assigned a full load of work.

Regards

Mr. Diwakar has given very valid suggestions. I would like to add a few:

1. You can block social and restricted sites from the central server. It is also possible that your office staff have access to some restricted sites. Such access adds to your costs and encourages them to neglect work and surf the net.

2. You can arrange seating so that a senior-level executive or supervisor sits among them. This will discourage them from leaving the workplace frequently to engage in unproductive activities or activities that do not enhance knowledge.

3. A time limit can be set for the execution/completion of work, failing which incentives may be reduced, and the impact on annual performance ratings can be communicated to them so that they may improve.

I hope that if these steps can be implemented, they will yield positive results.

Best wishes,

Regards

Complete Solution to Office Productivity Issues

The complete solution to your problem is:

• Restrict net-surfing through the system itself. In many offices, even Yahoo Mail and Gmail are not accessible.

• Arrange seating in such a way that the PC monitor can be seen from anywhere.

• Adjust cameras in the office specifically for these troublesome employees.

In each office, there are people who do not heed warnings, and for such acts, no punishments can be imposed.

Regards

Additional Points to Consider

a) Does your memo specify the punishment as well? If so, has the same been given?

b) How do you measure the productivity of these workers? Are they meeting the required parameters?

c) If they are meeting productivity goals, perhaps you need to incentivize them by allowing them to use social media platforms such as Facebook for a designated time. During this time, they can engage with your Company's Facebook page, post positive content, etc. If they are not meeting productivity standards, then appropriate disciplinary action should be taken.

d) As suggested by others, consider using site blockers and similar tools.

Please let me know if you need any further assistance or clarification.

Hi everyone, it is very simple. With the help of top management, ask the system admin to restrict the website and other software as needed. Before implementing any changes, provide a notice to all employees regarding the actions you are planning to take.

Restricting Games and Social Networking During Office Hours

Our friend is asking how to restrict playing games and accessing social networking sites during office hours. We have received sufficient feedback from our members on how to block and stop social networking websites. However, it is not possible to prevent games entirely. Even if all games are deleted from the system, employees may bring games on a pendrive or mobile device and connect to the system to play during work hours.

How can we prevent employees from playing games on the system during working hours? A brainstorming session on this topic would be greatly beneficial for all members experiencing this issue in their workplace.

Regards.

If this is the case, then the problem has been escalated to a new level, i.e., "finding every single possible way to play games during office hours." We've already told them to stop and implemented restrictions on them, but they still play games. I believe to solve this problem, we can no longer solely rely on technology. We have to make this a company-wide cultural problem.

Solutions to Prevent Gaming During Office Hours

One sure-fire way is to send an email to everybody threatening employees who play games during office hours that their names and "gaming history" will be publicly announced. Before that, we need to ensure we have a defined company internet usage policy clearly stating how much time employees can use for social networking (non-work-related) and entertainment (games, music, online comics, etc.) and what the disciplinary actions are if they violate that policy.

I think this is a fairly common problem in many companies around the world.

Regards

Interesting debate... and let me give a slight twist by playing the devil's advocate here... :-)

Let us say you have restricted social sites and have removed all games, and now you are hoping people will start working more. Why? Were they playing games because they didn't want to work (in which case they should not be in the organization in the first place) or because they had nothing else to do (as Dinesh rightly said, not engaged or motivated enough to self-learn or enhance their existing skills)? In either case, the problem source is the organization (HR & management) included and not really the employee... :-)

From another perspective again, let us say you have restricted social sites and have removed all games, and now you are hoping people will start working more. Why? I could be doing the same things on my mobile today. So instead of using your computers openly to play games, I now use my mobile to do so, and now you don't have a single record of what I'm doing. So here is my question to you... What would you prefer, that I do something openly and transparent or would you prefer that I do something on the sly and keep you off the radar... :-)

I don't think restriction is actually working. It used to when mobile technology was not advanced enough but no longer. Dinesh has actually hit the nail... Engagement and Motivation. Those and only those are the two solutions that can help the situation to improve and help in productivity. All others only stop an activity but have no effect on improvement.

I also have a different kind of suggestion.

Remove the restrictions totally. On a daily basis, send a report to every employee on how he spent his 8 hours (which site he visited and for how long). Start by sending this report to individual employees. Be polite in the email. Don't reprimand or comment. Just FYI kind of message. After a gap of 1 week, start sending a consolidated report of every employee to the entire team. Let the data be public. From the 3rd week, start using a multi-color highlighter on employees spending an unusually long time on these sites.

Please note... at no point in time are you reprimanding any employees for this. Just FYI. In the 4th week, have their managers keep this report on his desktop when reviewing team performance... :-) He is not to refer to the report, just look at it when one of his team has not completed their task as desired... :-) You will be surprised at how much all these activities reduce automatically when you do this... lol. Try it and then tell me if it worked...

Cheers,

Navneet Chandra

In earlier days, say about 10 years ago, when we were not computerized, or mobiles were not in use, during their leisure time, or when employees wanted to relax, they used to leave their workplace and roam around. They would go to other departments to meet friends, gather in corridors for a cigar, spend some time in the canteen, make telephone calls from the company's landlines, and engage in many other such activities. Now, all these activities are replaced by computerized relaxation. An organization cannot escape from employees enjoying office time for non-office work.

I fully appreciate and accept the views expressed by Mr. Naveen. It is 100 percent true, what he has commented. Very impressive post! Cheers…