Using Facebook at Work

ReadWriteWeb had a nice analysis about the debate over using Facebook at work. On one hand studies say it lowers productivity, but on the other hand, studies show that breaks in general can heighten productivity. Who knows?

But who cares? As I contended in my post "Let Employees Twitter," using social networking at work is as harmless as letting people talk at the water cooler. Of course, we all know about those people that spend too much time talking at the water cooler ... Weeding out time wasting employees is the same issue whether they are chatting online or on the phone.

Some professionals and companies might use social networking as a necessary vehicle (including journalists like me) to stay on top of things and market their work; however, we might be fooling ourselves to think being on Facebook is overly helpful throughout the workday. But, as noted above, it's also not necessarily harmful.