* Moderation in all things – including corporate policies
In the last newsletter, we explored the impact on productivity due to the use of corporate network resources for personal communications. In particular, we set forth a supposition that it is not at all unreasonable to expect that at least an hour per day of “work time” is spent on personal communications. And we further hypothesized that perhaps a part of the solution to this issue is to combine excellent technology with appropriate policy. Without policy, there will always be a way around blocking technology.
Today we’ll go so far as to set forth an idea that allowing “reasonable” use of corporate resources for personal communications is a good idea. After all, many employees are expected to use personal communications resources for business “after hours,” so there is an argument that a reasonable “quid pro quo” could be expected. Additionally, as an example, having the opportunity for a parent to receive a text message from a child concerning a problem at school could result in a more productive worker because of reduced stress and worries about family matters.
Of course, we could have long discussions about whether this blurring between the personal communications workspace and the corporate workspace is a good or a bad idea. But regardless, it’s a fact of life. We now expect that most people will check work e-mail at least daily even on weekends and while on “vacation.”
Which brings us to the idea of community. We have personally met only a minute percentage of those of you who read this newsletter. Nevertheless, there is an electronic tie that binds us together. And in most cases it’s an almost personal relationship.
The downside of the electronic anonymity is that sometimes people feel more free to “flame” on an idea electronically than they would in person. We’ve all seen examples of people writing – via e-mail, blogs, and forums – personal attacks that they would never say to a person directly (we hope!). And as writers of a newsletter, we’ve occasionally experienced this, but you become pretty immune to the personal attacks after a while. It comes with the territory.
The positive side of the “electronic water cooler” is that there is indeed a community. Over the years, a relationship of trust is built. We’ve experienced this first-hand both via this newsletter and at Webtorials. So allowing for some time for personal – albeit sometimes anonymous – communication seems to be a reasonable trade-off for building good working relationships. And as our workplace continues to evolve to being a virtual workplace, so must these relationships.
Bottom line from our perspective? First establish reasonable policies. But then make sure that these policies allow “moderation in all things.”
