You see both Twitter and Facebook are publishing and collaboration tools. There are advantages and disadvantages of both. In office time normally of 8 hours, if we are not having any work assigned or need to shift our focus temporarily from the work being done, then the employees should be able to Tweet as well as Post.
Also there is the freedom factor. We are not confining them to a tight boundary. Besides tell me honestly who is 100% productive for the whole 8 hours. At the same time, if the tools distract you from your work, you should immediately switch them off. In fact, the best way to work is to switch them off, when concentrating on work that needs to be done.
Having said this, I would also like to add another angle to it. Using the powerful feature of collaboration, lots of information can be gathered from the appropriate networks. For example, if I'm a Java developer, I can subscribe to those tweets and posts from similar groups or forums or whatever you may call them.
But the very moment , we shun our work for, say chatting about politics / movies etc, that's a misdemeanour (if I may use that word) Work related chats are OK. Self development chats are OK, as long as you don't have anything in hand. This value system has to come from within. People have to become accountable and subsequently autonomous. In fact then they can become mentors to others also.
To all the role models,
Thanks.
Guru30
3 comments:
I am not averse to the social and entertainment value of Twitter and Facebook. Nor am I a luddite. But I do have reservations about the use of Facebook and Twitter at work.
It may be different for others, but for me personally, Facebook is a medium of staying in touch with friends and colleagues strewn about our lifetime. It is a great way to get back in touch with childhood friends, distant relatives, and others and get to know them more intimately than you normally would (or find the time to). I know that various Groups that cater to special interests are helpful and people could turn to them to solve problems at work. But I think that using FB is more like walking into a party hall filled with friends and family and seeking out a java expert to solve your work problem. Tough to do that without saying Hi to all and sundry. If you don't people might get offended and sunder their ether-ties with you.
Twittering is an art form which I haven’t mastered. I have some friends who send out titbits of information that somehow pull you in. Others post inane pieces like "Right now I am brushing my teeth..". Again, there might be value, and a technique, to mastering and using these mediums to solve work problems. But unless you have discipline, you are more likely to wallow in the mire.
What about using dedicated forums to solve problems at work? Isn't that a more focused way to get to a solution? Especially when your work problems are usually esoteric in nature?
Food for thought...
It's a matter of perspective and you are right from your viewpoint. In fact dedicated forums are avialable @ socialcast.com and yammer.com.
Hope you find them useful and thanks for your comments
Dear Sanjeev,
We have different perspectives of the same thing. Different strokes for different folks as they say. But you re right, targeted forums are much more useful forms of communication.
Thank you once again.
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