Facebook addicts took over my office

In Issue 516’s thoughtprovoking ‘Question of the Fortnight’ you asked whether Facebook addiction was “ruining the UK economy”. My answer, based on the past 10 years working in a busy office, is absolutely!

I’ve just retired as an office manager, head of a department of around 30 people. From around 2000 I witnessed a gradual decline in productivity, directly caused I believe by the temptations presented by the internet. It started slowly in the early years. I could tell that some employees were spending too long online, but I thought that the novelty of the internet would wear off. How wrong I was!

By about 2005 I had to discipline several employees for spending too much time online during work hours. But that was nothing compared to the Facebook apocalypse about to hit. It seemed that overnight the entire office had discovered this ‘amazing’ site, where they could ‘poke’ each other. I warned my boss that it would have a negative effect, but he was about to retire, so he didn’t really care. His exact words were, ‘I’m off to Spain, it’s your problem’.

Since Facebook launched, nothing has caused more conflict within the office. It seems to turn workers into naughty pupils, trying to do what they shouldn’t without the teacher noticing. Things calmed down after we blocked it on office PCS, but then the arrival of smartphones started another wave.

What astounds me is how today’s workers regard using Facebook as an essential part of daily life that even work shouldn’t interrupt. When confronted, they offered vague apologies, pledging to cut back. This might last a day or two, but then they’d be sucked back in. Needless to say, when I considered making redundancies, the Facebook addicts were top of the list.

Anyway, it’s now someone else’s problem. Like my old boss a decade ago, I’m off to sunny Spain! Frank Burstow