Managing TV and Internet Access in the Workplace

People are employed in an organization to carry out tasks that are required to meet its objectives. The television is now widely accepted as part of office furniture while the internet is regarded as an essential tool for doing business.

However, these two technologies can become sources of conflict between management and staff because of employees who misuse them. A lot of employees have been caught watching movies instead of working while others have been caught chatting or visiting social networking sites instead of using the internet for the purposes of promoting the company.

Of course, managers are not pleased or impressed by this; some have banned television from their offices, while others have placed severe restrictions on internet access by blocking popular social networking sites or run an intranet within the organization instead.

This really need not be the case because television is also used to entertain visitors to the organization before they are attended to and may be a source of very important information that affects the company and requires urgent action.

Proper management of TV and internet involves putting checks in place to ensure that employees deliver on their job. Television sets should be placed in locations where it will not distract workers attention too much but will still serve as a means of entertainment for customers (I think our local banks have mastered this). There should be bandwidth limits placed on each workstation so that staff will be forced to select the sites they visit wisely so as not to fail in their duty.

Television and internet if properly managed in the workplace are great tools to improve productivity; employees who abuse them should be sanctioned to maintain order and decorum whenever such situations arise.