Every coins has two sides. Same being applied to social media. Harm? or Beneficial?
Introduction:
Communication is fairly important in a workplace and it is a key to any relationship. Successful teamwork can not be existed without having good communication between team members. However, with the advanced social media technologies and other messaging devices, using social media as a form of communication in the workplace becomes very common these days.
Does social media use do more good than harm in the workplace？
Advantages:
Greatly reduces the cost of communication
Using social media as a communication and interaction tool in the workplace can reduce the cost of communication for the company. In the old days, companies needed to equip each office with a landline telephone and fax machine as communication tools in the workplace. Today, a cell phone and wireless network can do the same jobs and cost much less.
Increase flexibility and accessibility
Compared with the old-fashioned communication methods, technology nowadays allows people to easily access anywhere on their electronic devices. Unlike the old days, where people needed to mail and send out hand-written letters to communicate with others on the other side of the globe. It takes longer than just shooting a message with our device.
Disadvantages:
Information lost or leaked by hackers
Since social media is not designed for the workplace, sometimes it's not secure. The use of social media software at work may increase the likelihood of fraud and spam and virus attacks by hackers. Also, the use of social media to communicate may lead to the loss of data because the mass of information mixed in social media may drown out the really important work information.
Invasion of personal space and privacy
With the workplace being shifted and brought into a part of social media can be an issue. The reason why it's because social media is now sharing both personal and business info. In the past, social media are usually being used outside of work as a platform that allows people to share their lifestyles and stories with their family and friends.
Ever since the pandemic begins, people are forced to work online and even with online meeting platforms, they may require you to connect with your personal social media account when signing up, possibly leading to the revealing of your personal accounts and other information. Some companies, such as one in Maryland, even ask employees to grant access to their accounts and regulate their social media activity.
It may reduce employee productivity
Using social media in the workplace may reduce employee productivity because the clutter of information on social media is very distracting.
For example, when you check your text messages at work and you see new messages other than work messages, do you check all new messages before turning off your phone? Even if it's not appropriate, most employees do it. As a result, working time is wasted. While it may not be much of a loss for a large company if it happens to only one employee, it would be if all employees wasted a little time like this.
Additionally, workers may be lack support and unable to release stress. If there's an issue in the office, people are willing to talk it out and solve it as a team. But behind the screen, emotions and problems are less noticeable and it is hard for workers to bring that out.
From here, personality brings into the game. It decides how well can a worker can adapt to the new working method. Some could quickly adapt to an undisturbed workplace and some may require physical interaction with colleagues in order to increase task satisfaction thus perform better in work .
Conclusion:
The communication method in the workplace has always been a topic of concern to the company's management. Using social media as a tool for communication at work can be a good thing or it can bring losses to the company. It can save the cost of communication tools and accelerate the communication process. But it may lead to information lost or leaked, and it may distract employees in the workplace.