Why Dragon Theo Paphitis is wrong about Facebook work ban
So Dragon Den’s Theo Paphitis has turned his fiery breath against Facebook. In the Mail Online he rails against the social networking leviathan and proudly declares that other business owners should follow his example and ban their employees from using Facebook.
Quoting Andy Warhol’s ‘famous for 15 minutes’ he states:
“The truth of his idiom has now been realised through websites like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and Bebo, in which participants are led to believe that the whole world wants to hear about their every move, from buying a new pair of shoes to dressing in the morning. Narcissism has become rampant, as users wallow in the minutiae of their own banal narratives.
“None of this would really matter if it were confined to the home. But the worrying development of our times is that this binge of shallow introspection has now infected the workplace, with employees spending huge amounts of their office time on social networking websites. “
Incidentally, ‘famous for 15 Minutes’ is actually explanatory enough not to be considered an idiom, which normally are phrases whose meaning is less clear!.
Naturally he mentions Portsmouth City Council’s decision to ban Facebook after it discovered how much time was being spent on the site (an average of 413 hours per employee per month!). Which says more about working for Portsmouth City Council than the allure of social networking!
When has banning anything ever really worked? Look at drugs – prohibition works there eh? Speaking of prohibition, look at what happened in America in the 1920s. Besides, my experience of public sector computer systems suggests that there are likely to be myriad ways to get around such a ban.
How about limiting access to social networking websites? Or introducing a fair use policy that allows performing employees’ access? That would be a much better idea and may even prove an incentive to work harder and smarter.
Also where would it end? The reason why businesses are finding success online is because many of their customers have access to their websites when at work. Take that away and the very success that has created the challenge of managing access.
I stopped watching the game show that is Dragon’s Den quite some time ago because of the dishonest way it pretends to be about entrepreneurs, when obviously it is about entertainment.
Also, don’t dragons live in lairs, not dens! Interesting that I still see Theo Paphitis popping up on a regular basis as he prolongs his 15 minutes of fame with ‘shallow introspection’ in interviews in the media!