Archive notice: This article was originally published on March 5, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The consumption of online videos in the workplace is increasing sharply. After companies struggled with employees spending more and more time on email correspondence, chatting and other private Internet activities, video portals are now robbing them of valuable working time. The US funeral company Carriage Services, for example, recently discovered that 70 percent of the 125 employees at its headquarters regularly watch videos on sites such as YouTube and MySpace. As the Wall Street Journal reports, the technology administrator then immediately had access to the sites in question blocked. Carriage Services is not an isolated case with its video-addicted employees. More and more companies are cutting off access to video portals because these are causing ever greater damage to their businesses.
According to surveys by Nielsen Online http://www.nielsen-online.com most Internet videos are watched at lunchtime between twelve and 2 p.m. This is also a period when the majority of the population is at work. But private video entertainment in the office does not just affect productivity. Smaller companies in particular, whose technical infrastructure is less extensive, complain that their limited broadband connections are being stretched to the limit. Download capacity is frequently clogged with video files, leaving no capacity for work-related Internet activities.
Studies from Germany also confirm that the Internet has now become the biggest distraction in the workplace. Apparently, however, no data has yet been collected specifically on online videos. “Unfortunately, we do not yet have any figures at all on this subject,” says Guido Brinkel, Head of Media Policy at BITKOM, in response to an enquiry from pressetext.de. It is therefore also impossible to assess how much harm video portals actually cause to companies.
In any case, companies sometimes find it difficult to stop harmful surfing behaviour without treading too heavily on their employees’ toes. And even if access to certain sites or portals is simply blocked, this usually does not solve the problem. After all, many companies now also work with videos on the Internet, use download services or online telephone services. Finding a way to make “important” sites accessible while blocking “unimportant” ones often presents technicians with an impossible challenge.
Companies often try to establish clear ground rules in advance and regulate private surfing through works agreements. Cases of excessive Internet use in the workplace have even ended up in court because employees were dismissed over it (pressetext reported: http://www.pte.at/pte.mc?pte=070820012 ). But it is not only employers who are becoming increasingly annoyed; employees are too. While one side complains of financial damage, employees increasingly feel that they are being monitored and are at the mercy of their boss’s spying.
