Morning:
6°c
One of Damilola Taylor's killers was back behind bars today - only 16 days after being released from jail. Ricky Preddie (pictured left) was recalled to prison last night after breaching the terms of his parole
More...
City ban on Facebook
By Mark Prigg and Sophie Borland, Evening Standard Last updated at 11:49am on 27.07.07
About face: leading City firms such as Dresdner Kleinwort have blocked networking sites
More than two thirds of London companies - led by top City firms - are now banning or restricting the use of internet site Facebook over fears that staff are wasting time on it.
Many firms have now warned employees that "Facebooking" during office hours is a sackable offence.
An Evening Standard straw poll of major employers found that more than 70 per cent of the businesses, including banks, law firms, utility companies and government departments, have banned or limited access to social networking sites. Recent figures showed London has overtaken Toronto as the city with the most Facebook users in the world.
More than 826,000 people are registered on the site, a figure that has doubled since May.
The site was first banned by several American and Canadian companies who noticed the large amounts of time employees were spending on it.
A study found British users spend on average 191 minutes a month on Facebook and dozens of people have admitted to "Facebook addiction", where they check on their friends, and often exes, compulsively.
Our study found British Gas, the Met, Lloyds TSB and Bristows law firm all had internet filters preventing sites such as
Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Hotmail being viewed at work.
A spokesman for Credit Suisse said: "Staff are forbidden from accessing the site while at work as it is thought that they are wasting company time and money."
A member of staff at investor Dresdner Kleinwort said: "The ban is widespread across all banking offices."
A spokesman for the law consultant-firm ELAS said companies-were well within their rights to sack staff for logging on to Facebook and that the site had caused numerous problems.
"Most contracts nowadays have a clause which restricts internet use to business-use only," he said.
"A manager could quite easily sack someone if they caught them using these social networking sites during office hours. Unless you can argue it is an important work tool, people should not be accessing these sites during work time."
Some companies have imposed "Facebook time" for employees.
"We have imposed a partial ban, allowing employees to access it during their lunch hour," said Amanda Turner of IT recruitment company MDA resources.
"We did have a problem with people using it for far longer than they should."
The internet site, which now has four million users in Britain, was set up in 2004 by 23-year-old American student Mark Zuckerberg.
He is facing a legal threat from a rival website, ConnectU, the owners of which allege they and Zuckerberg conceived Facebook while at Harvard University.
Reader views (11)
Just a thought.. You go to work to provide a service for your employer, in return for your salary. If you want to engage in idle gossip with your friends, do it on your own time!
- Gary Hardman, Bolton England, 26/10/2009 23:42
Report abuse
I agree
Facebook should be banned at a place of work, it is tottaly unacceptable going on it whilst you are at work, employees should be warned if they are caught on it, or better still just ban it on the work system.
Although people highly regard facebook as the 'ultimate social networking site' it should be monitored by a secure filters to ensure that no dangerous activities can occur within it, as i strongly belive that facebook does encourage young teenagers to to socialise through the cyber network, and you have no confidence of whom you are taking to on the other side. Facebook is now a huge magnet for child molesters, and other related disturbance and I believe there have been many cases of this.
- Chris, Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, 21/04/2009 01:10
Report abuse
I would be interested to know the date and time Trevor posted the above note to see if he was surfing while at work? His point around increasing profitability and productiveness via banning such activity is a myth. Reports show that balancing work and non-work related internet activities increases overall moral, company performance and staff retention. I am a director of an ad' agency and I certainly see this to be true with the staff we have here - remember Trevor we fought to not live in a dictatorship!
- Gray, Midlands, 08/11/2007 11:35
Report abuse
I think it's a great way to stay in touch with friends at home in England. Plus, you can find friends you've lost contact with. It's much better than Friends Reunited!
- Tanya, DUBAI, UAE, 18/09/2007 14:22
Report abuse
I love Facebook and it keeps getting better. The applications (developers have been creating lots of good tricks recently) are great. I've been sending flowers to strange women, clients and even my wife.
- Anon, London, 18/09/2007 13:22
Report abuse
This crackdown is long overdue. People who surf at work - when it is not work-related - are wasting their employers' time and therefore money. Perhaps this marvellous country can now finally improve its profitability and productiveness.
- Trevor Roll, London, 18/09/2007 13:22
Report abuse
I support this move, one of my annoying colleagues is constantly on Facebook. I hate Facebook because it's a snobby networking tool which helps phoney people show off how many pals they've got and also lets them exlude others. If I was a boss I'd definitely ban it.
- Mike, London, 18/09/2007 13:22
Report abuse
Facebook is exploding in the US and is increasingly being used a networking tool in addition to keeping up with friends - it is appearing as a major threat to LinkedIn.
- Nick, Boston MA, 18/09/2007 13:22
Report abuse
I think Facebook should carry a warning. A friend of mine who had a crush on a young lady at work could lose his job over what he thought were private messages being sent to the lady in question only for them to be posted to all their friends on Facebook. The pages were then printed on the lady's home pc and used to bring a complaint against my friend. In a recent case in the USA a judge banned the use of information obtained this way from being submitted as evidence in a court of law. So beware of using Facebook - it could ruin your life
- Anon, London, 18/09/2007 13:22
Report abuse
I am very disturbed by this, I can't believe anybody would block this loved site.
- Bubs, Essex, 18/09/2007 13:22
Report abuse
Dammit, there goes 60% of my working day.
- Helen F, Kent, 18/09/2007 13:22
Report abuse
