Blog And Reading Blogs - Are You Stealing Employer's Time?

A new blog is created every six seconds now. That means more and more people are blogging. People started blogging as a way of keeping their journals online but as time goes by, blogging has evolved to almost a lifestyle and some used blogging for personal branding purposes or a way of advertising themselves. So, now everyone blog – from CEOs to politicians to celebrities and to students. Some of course blog for the money – generated from advertisements or writing advertorials.

In short, blogging is not going away but has slowly become part of our lives. Most people had already started to insert “My blog” in their call cards besides the usual hand phone no.

But, is blogging really for everyone? What if you have a full-time job? If you want to blog while you work full-time, when can you do so? Do you honestly have the time to blog or read other peoples’ blogs?

Employers are having a hard time controlling what employees do and cannot do in the internet– of course, they can block some sites but what if some of these sites include blogs that are going to benefit the employees in their work, is it then justifiable to block this sites? Headache, headache..., rite?

In my office, we do not block any site. In fact, surfing the social networking sites, blogs and etc are encouraged as this is part and parcel of our job: looking for talent! But, should they choose to chat with their friends or do personal stuffs instead while they surf these sites, can the management do anything? Almost nothing! Cos' the time spend on tracking their activities – like which page they go to and etc to determine whether they are working or otherwise would be too much work.

Some employers opted another way - appealing to their conscience through education and training. It works sometimes with the more matured bunch but for others, it is again an uphill task.

As working lifestyle has changed dramatically over the years, the rules to manage them must also change as well. Is your employer having more or less control now? And why?

You are reading this blog… do you regard it as stealing your employer’s time?