3 Reasons You Really DON'T Want Facebook At Work

This is a response to a comment by Uncle Eddie from last week’s Bonus Bananas: “The banks are gonna have to evolve on this soon, cause it ain’t going away.” My immediate thought upon reading that was, “Why should they?”

Here are 3 reasons off the top of my head why you really don’t want Facebook, Twitter, and personal email at work:

1. You won’t be the only one seeing it. Firms already monitor your Internet use every day; why on earth would you want them to see who you’re stalking on Facebook? Do you really want your compliance department watching you update your status, and by extension see all of your friends’ activity? There’s no reason to gift-wrap them another reason to pry into your personal life.

2. Multitasking = Unproductive monkeys. When you multitask (i.e., check your Gmail every 5 minutes), you lose productivity, and your bosses and coworkers will notice. Focus is key, and you can’t do it when you’re cackling at somebody’s meme they posted in your newsfeed.

“But ITF, just for a couple minutes a day! It doesn’t hurt!”

If that’s the case, then...

3. Why not just move into your office? I realize the lines between home and work are getting blurrier and blurrier these days, and for many of us, practically living at the office and being on call 24/7 is just part of the game. So why not make it official? Now that you can get on Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail at work, what else do you need?

Grab yourself a sleeping bag and a pillow and shack up at your bank! Shuffle over to the pantry in your bathrobe for your morning coffee! Order seamless! Live rent-free! You’ve got everything you need.

And since people are now working, living, and sleeping at the office, they must be having sex. Why don’t we remove the restrictions on that, too? It’s gonna happen anyway, and it’s not going away. Why not just let it happen? Just a quick one, while he’s away? Now you never have to leave.

I hope everyone sees where I’m going with this. Stick with using your Blackberries and iphones instead for the time being. We don’t need everyone’s favorite means of procrastination being brought into the bank.

Or am I extrapolating too much? Would loosening the Web restrictions on Wall Street really lead to the death of professionalism, or is it harmless? Come at me.

 

I think you're spot on as far as we don't need Facebook at work. Those who really want to use it will find a way to regardless, whether it's on their phone or through a trick a second year analyst showed them. Banks don't need to evolve on this one - it's not like people are going to stop applying for jobs because they can't get on Facebook at work.

MM IB -> Corporate Development -> Strategic Finance
 

I have to disagree with some of your post. Letting compliance into your personal life, big problem but while Facebook and Gchat do use up a lot of time can you honestly say its a waste? Who here can actually do meaningful work for 16-18hrs a day for weeks on end without any break? My guess is almost nobody. If its not facebook/gchat then its going to be WSO. If not WSO then its going to be something else. People will find a way to take a few minutes off when working so hard for so many hours.

Banning the sites is only serving to push people into other types of breaks. This may be their goal though. Some tech companies offer yoga classes during the day, others have video games. People need a break for a few minutes every now and then and I guess the company can dictate how you take it but they cant honestly think it will help productivity

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell
 

i've tried blocking facebook, yahoo, and (sorry) wallstreetoasis* before on my browswer but for some reason it wouldn't work. the internet is the devil!

*no offense wso... but you are bad for my productivity.

Money Never Sleeps? More like Money Never SUCKS amirite?!?!?!?
 
Best Response

Let me clarify what I meant in my comment on Bonus Bananas: I meant that social media is becoming ubiquitous in news dissemination today, and by banning it altogether banks are cutting off their noses to spite their faces in some respects.

Put another way, there was a time in the not too distant past (I know, I was at work back then) that customers could only buy and sell stock over the phone. I am here to tell you that the major banks fought the Internet and electronic executions tooth and fucking nail. They were the absolute last to adopt technology, and they only did so because they were getting their collective asses handed to them by the more nimble discount brokers. Now you couldn't possible conceive of picking up the phone to buy or sell a stock.

Social media is the same thing. Compliance is fucking terrified by it because it requires a firm to trust its employees to a certain extent - something no firm on Wall Street does or ever has. But the market will force it to adapt or die. It's just the nature of technology.

Just for the record, I wasn't advocating hours of lolcats in lieu of actual work.

 
Edmundo Braverman:
Let me clarify what I meant in my comment on Bonus Bananas: I meant that social media is becoming ubiquitous in news dissemination today, and by banning it altogether banks are cutting off their noses to spite their faces in some respects.

Put another way, there was a time in the not too distant past (I know, I was at work back then) that customers could only buy and sell stock over the phone. I am here to tell you that the major banks fought the Internet and electronic executions tooth and fucking nail. They were the absolute last to adopt technology, and they only did so because they were getting their collective asses handed to them by the more nimble discount brokers. Now you couldn't possible conceive of picking up the phone to buy or sell a stock.

Social media is the same thing. Compliance is fucking terrified by it because it requires a firm to trust its employees to a certain extent - something no firm on Wall Street does or ever has. But the market will force it to adapt or die. It's just the nature of technology.

Just for the record, I wasn't advocating hours of lolcats in lieu of actual work.

Haha, definitely wasn't trying to call you out, Eddie. But I'm genuinely curious, what's the real value add to having Twitter, etc at work? How can it be as huge a difference as switching from phones to Internet?

Metal. Music. Life. www.headofmetal.com
 

1) Is reasonable, but I'm less worried about compliance departments and more about subpoenas/discovery in merger related litigation. Then again, 90% of my facebook activity is passive and I tend to post mostly pictures (not going out pictures) and statuses that are commentary on sports. 2) Not true given IBD analyst workflow 3) Not true given IBD analyst life

If facebook ever goes deeper into content publishing, the restrictions will probably need to lift. I actually see restrictions on twitter as more problematic, especially for guys who trade oil these days given what is going on in the middle east.

As far as breaks and efficiency, much better to be on FB than distracting your buddy (who is actually trying to crank).

 

seriously guys, I got out of FB six years ago when it was becoming too noisy. wth you still in there with the hoi polloi for? if TV is the opium of the masses, FB is prozac. how badly do you want to be top dog? leave the pack bros! get a real life if you actually have time to live it, screw social media, use it only to advance your career.

 

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