August 20, 2007 9:48 AM
Australian Bosses Lose $4 Billion Due to Facebook
Internet security firm SurfControl reports that based on its recent study, the use of Facebook by Australian employees during office hours could contribute to a significant loses for the company.
The study based its calculations from the estimated 230,000 Australian employees who are already registered users of Facebook and who are enjoying the social networking site’s many features to connect and communicate with their friends online. These employees are constantly accessing Facebook, viewing their profiles, uploading photos and videos and searching for long lost friends and relatives. These they even while in the confine of their respective offices during their official working hours.
SurfControl chairman Richard Cullen told on Australian radio that Facebook is addictive that employees found themselves checking on their Facebook profile more often than they should. Facebook’s interactivity contributes to the growing interest and usage of the social networking site.
SurfControl based their study on the average Australian wage earner who spends an hour a day online checking on their Facebook account. Taking into account all employees of different companies spending an hour a day, SurfControl came up with the figure $5 billion loses.
Granting that the computation and assumptions are true or not, the fact still remains that accessing Facebook or any other social networking sites certainly accounts to company losses especially if social networking sites are not part of the employees’ job.
The study only highlights what is very obvious. Unofficial online businesses is definitely a no-no during official company hours, be it online or offline. And this phenomenon is true not only in Australian setting but anywhere in the world.
Social networking sites have their own merits and demerits. The moment users access these sites during office hours using office bandwidth, it becomes a demerit for social networking sites.
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