Member Article

Newcastle employers crack down on Facebook

A new report from Microsoft claims that nearly 70% of Newcastle employers have banned their staff from using social networking sites such as Facebook during working hours - more than any other region in the UK.

Yet it is Geordies who are second most likely, (falling just behind Londoners), to regularly put the graft in out of working hours; organising meetings; taking work-related phone calls; and emailing clients from home.

Microsoft’s Life Maximizer study also shows that while 62% of the city’s residents admit to checking their bank account or trying to organise their personal life electronically, nearly 80% of those connected are happy to be more flexible about when and how long they work.

The study also found that nearly 80% of Geordies believe technology allows them to stay in touch with more people than older more traditional methods would do.

Ashley Highfield, UK MD for Microsoft’s consumer and online propositions, said: “It seems the idea of life versus work is well and truly dead – it’s no longer that clear cut, as thanks to technology we are multi-tasking and life-splicing minute by minute. It isn’t about always being on – it’s about the ability to do what we want and need to do at a time that suits our lifestyle.”

“This study has shown that, in the same way technologies converge and become mainstream, so the different individual parts of our life have started to merge. Nearly 80% of us believe that the traditional nine to five working day no longer exists, and we have started mixing and matching different tasks to fit in with our personal requirements – using technology to support us rather than lead us.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .