Social Media in the Workplace: A Cautionary Tale
Social media is everywhere, literally. It’s in your hand at 2:00 AM scrolling through your crush’s Facebook page, hoping desperately you don’t accidentally double click on their posts. It’s checking emails and chat rooms on your lunch break. It’s the loud ping next to your knee at the doctor’s appointment you couldn’t reschedule, and it’s in the anxious jitters you get when you can’t answer that ping as quickly as you would like. Your hand itches when you can’t quite reach your device.
It’s no secret that social media has dominated the minds of all users, beginning at its inception in the early 2000’s. But, just how pervasive is social media and online presence? According to the Pew Research Center, in 2005, only 5% of respondents used any form of social media. As of 2019, 72% of respondents use social media on a daily basis, roughly equating to 7 out of every 10 adults using social media every single day. That’s a lot of people on their devices at any given time. I can’t help but wonder how social media use affects the workplace, if 40+ hours of our week are spent there? (“Social Media Fact Sheet”).
A Survey: Harvard Business Review
A Harvard Business Review study researched the impact social media use has on the retention and motivation of current employees. Preliminary research showed that employees who connected with each other on social media blogs tended to be more motivated, and produce more innovative ideas, than their counterparts who rarely engaged with coworkers on social media platforms and blogs. Further, respondents were asked questions about their thoughts and attitudes towards their organization, as well as their social media habits during work hours. The research yielded a rather surprising conclusion. The survey showed that 76% of individuals who used social media for work purposes had a higher interest in other organizations they found on social media rather than their own organization. In comparison, only 60% of respondents who used social media for leisure purposes had any interest in other organizations’ social media presence. Individuals who use social media at work tend to be more motivated, work oriented, and innovated in comparison with their counterparts (Bizzi). However, the survey found that the use of social media in the workplace leads to a lower employee retention rate, and an overall lack of satisfaction in one’s own organization.
A Survey: The Pew Research Center
The Pew Research Center surveyed over 2,000 individuals, roughly 800 of whom are at least employed full-time or part-time, to better understand the pervasiveness of social media in the workplace, and to explore the positive and negative effects social media has in the workplace. The findings were less surprising than the results yielded in the Harvard Business Review study. Individuals use social media in the workplace for many reasons, but actual work related reasons isn’t always the case. 34% of respondents admitted to using social media for a mental break, 27% of respondents admitted to using social media to keep in touch with friends and family members, and 17% of respondents admitted to using social media to find out information on a coworker. In comparison, only 12% of the respondents admitted to using social media to problem solve issues and conflict within their organization. Respondents also stated that social media influences the way they perceive their supervisors and colleagues. 14% of respondents found that coworkers’ social media presence improved their professional perception of their coworker, while 16% of respondents found that their coworker’s social media presence lowered their professional perception of their coworker. Another less than surprising fact to come out of this research is that younger individuals tend to think social media use in the workplace is more acceptable than older individuals. However, younger individuals claim that social media has improved their working relationships more than older individuals claim (Ellison and Lampe).
Going Beyond: Cybersecurity Knowledge and the General Public
Not only does social media pose adverse professional consequences on individuals, it also opens up the organization to network attacks, legal issues, potential unethical behavior amongst colleagues and supervisors, the list goes on and on. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, SHRM, visiting social media websites on a private intranet server can expose the server to malware, spyware, and adware. All of which are harmful computer viruses with the sole intention of disrupting, damaging, and gaining information from a specific user (“Managing and Leveraging Workplace Use of Social Media”). Additionally, research from the Pew Research Center found that most Americans lack a general knowledge of cybersecurity. 1,040 individuals were asked to participate in a cybersecurity best practices survey. 41% of respondents admitted to sharing personal data such as passwords with a friend or colleague, 39% stated that they use the same password for every single profile, and 25% of respondents admit to using simpler passwords to remember them easily. While most individuals surveyed seem to exercise best practices in their own digital platforms, a lot of individuals do not. Not participating in two-step authentication and verification procedures, choosing not to lock phones with passwords that consist of four characters and above, and a general lack of knowledge pertaining to cybersecurity risks as the general consensus of the group are just a few reasons why social media should not be allowed in the workplace (Smith). If one doesn’t care to know about one’s own threat to cybersecurity, will they really care to exercise best social media practices in the workplace?
To take it one step further, potential unethical behaviors derived from social media use can range from “friending” subordinates/superiors, harassment/sexual harassment, illegal use of company logo or trademark, implicating oneself to accepting favors/giving favors, etc. The list is just too long and too tedious to deny.
Final Thoughts
You may be thinking, I’m just checking Facebook for 5 minutes. This definitely doesn’t apply to me. However, even the simple act of utilizing social media, for personal use, has statistically shown to lower your sense of connection to your organization, and improves the chances of many potential harmful instances that can happen to both you and your organization. The next time you pick up your cellular device, or leisurely browse the company’s private intranet server, just remember: Social media has no place in the workplace.
Sources
Bizzi, Lorenzo. “Employees Who Use Social Media for Work Are More Engaged — but Also More Likely to Leave Their Jobs.” Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School Publishing, 17 May 2018, https://hbr.org/2018/05/employees-who-use-social-media-for-work-are-more-engaged-but-also-more-likely-to-leave-their-jobs
Ellison, Nicole and Cliff Lampe. “Social Media and the Workplace.” Pew Research Center: Internet and Technology, Pew Research Center, 22 June 2016, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/06/22/social-media-and-the-workplace/
“Managing and Leveraging Workplace Use of Social Media.” The Society for Human Resource Management, SHRM, 19 January 2016, https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/managingsocialmedia.aspx.
Smith, Aaron. “Americans and Cybersecurity.” Pew Research Center: Internet and Technology, Pew Research Center, 26 January 2017, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/01/26/americans-and-cybersecurity/. “Social Media Fact Sheet.” Pew Research Center: Internet and Technology, Pew Research Center, 12 June 2019, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/.
I wouldn’t say social media has 100% no place in the workplace. In the marketing department, it is my job to monitor social media for the company. Whether it is making social media content or monitoring the industry or even sharing our social media on my personal account.
I agree that the professional world has to embrace (and much of it has) the new ground of social media. I feel that the author did a good job of outlining the pervasive reach of social media, but this article seemed limited to unofficial use of social media in the workplace. I appreciate that focus for the scope of this work, but like you, I would like to see an exploration of the professional duties of social media engagement.
I appreciate how focused this piece was. I would like to see a follow up article that looks at the potentially negative impact of companies and professional organizations monitoring an individual’s private social media. I know I’ve heard of negative impacts from employers viewing an employee’s personal social media. For that reason, I am anonymous on ALL of my social media (which is already severely limited). This was nice work!
Hi, I really enjoy reading your blog post. I am surprised to read about how social media could be a link to a workplace. This is actually a positive side of social media which we see it very rarely. I have always thought that social media might not be a good influence and it might impact people in a negative way. I guess I have seen a lot of negativity on social media (harassment cases, discouragement, saying negative things about others and etc) which made me think about this way. But I feel like social media has its own pros and cons, its just the way of how you use it.
Thanks for the post! I think that social media is such an interesting topic. You shared a pretty surprising stat that indicated that the use of social media has risen dramatically and swiftly. It was surprising to read, but there is a ton of evidence in my day to day to support it. I often wonder what the long term effects of social media are truly going to be. I think it is still so new that we don’t have a truly defined grasp on what it does to our brains. Social media really became a thing that everyone was on while I was in high school. With that said, I often wonder how different somebody who has social media in their lives essentially since birth feels about it.