Personal Working

Whilst doing some reason on internet security, I happened to stumble upon an extract of a whitepaper that asked the question – “Is it ok to use your work computer for personal reasons?”

It’s a question I’m sure we’ve all asked ourselves whenever we start a new job – just where are the boundary limits of what is acceptable and unacceptable on a company’s network? Common sense says that you should avoid surfing for websites for violence, drugs, pornography, etc whilst at work. But should you really be checking out the latest sports headlines on company time? Or doing that online shopping whilst in the workplace?

Almost every IT department has had to agonise over this recently with the increased demand for social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Business says that it’s non-productive; users say it’s an essential tool for building partnerships. The decision to block or not to block was a real big decision (and most settled on time-limited access, during breaks or after work hours).

The results were as follows; in the UK, of those surveyed in 2006, 56% thought it was ok. In 2007 that number decreased slightly to 54% perhaps as a directly result of blocking social networking sites. In the US, it was a very different story though – in 2006, 29% of those surveyed thought it was okay to use a work computer for personal use, but in 2007 that number vastly increased to 40%.

Considering that for the vast amount of people, most of their day is spend in the office (and how many of us have used their works telephone to make a private, personal call?), I think its acceptable for users to use their computers for personal use (providing it falls within sensible parameters of acceptable online activity), to check news and sports headlines, par-take in online shopping, Instant Messenger communication and personal email. Of course, each user’s workload must be accounted for each day – businesses cannot afford to employ ‘surfers’ who give very little back.

In modern day business, mobile working practices and flexitime are becoming the norm – businesses must start to prepare for this shift - people should be able to balance their home/work life as the boundaries are becoming more blurred.