Times are tough and have been since late 2007. Getting through the workday has been very challenging to countless numbers of American workers during the Great Recession of the 21st Century. As I hear from friends and colleagues who are lucky enough to hold down jobs in this challenging economy, most workplace environments are downright brutal.

Based on my observations and experiences, dysfunction in some form has always been king at the American workplace. At some companies, it’s simply a matter of bad knowledge management and information sharing practices. At others, dysfunction is akin to a gladiator sport, where coworkers are hell-bent on throwing colleagues under the proverbial bus at every opportunity. Certainly doesn’t bode well for underdogs in the workplace—you know who they are: they keep their faces down, eyes focused on their works and noses to the grindstone. They are good tacticians and not necessarily good at schmoozing. Yet, I’d bet these hard workers would see an increase in confidence level if only they had access to social media internally at the workplace. They could share their knowledge and experiences with colleagues and grow and learn from coworkers. They might even make a few lasting workplace friendships, too. Access to shared knowledge via internal social media tools might even help these shy workers to be more positively socially engaged in the break room and around the water cooler. But I think the average American workplace has a long way to go.

I discovered a 2009 Computerworld article, “Study: 54% of companies ban Facebook, Twitter at work,” by Sharon Gaudin, that indicates troublesome data from a Robert Half survey. Per the study:

• 54% of U.S. companies say that they have banned workers from using social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace while on the job.
• 19% of companies surveyed allow social networking use only for business purposes.
• 16% of companies surveyed allow limited personal use of social networking.
• 10% of the 1,400 CIOs interviewed said that their companies allow employees full access to social networks during work hours.
• The U.S. Marine Corps bans it.

Knowledge sharing takes place beyond the confines of an office, yet most powers-that-be ban social media at work. No matter how attentive a worker, no individual employee is 100% focused and productive during the traditional American 8-hour workday. The need to focus on other things and take more than the traditional two breaks per day is simply human. It’s the need for periodic rest – even if to look up from the computer for a minute or two to rest one’s eyes. Tiny diversions are a healthy practice and support productivity.

Is staring out the window or gossiping in a corner of the hallway any less productive than surfing the Internet or checking social media sites—even if those sites are strictly internal? I think not. I like learning new knowledge and information to help me do a better job and be more productive. I always look to colleagues and coworkers for some of that information. To me, social media internally at work makes perfect sense.

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