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Business Owners: Let Workers Text, Twitter
Richmond Times - Dispatch
May 14, 2009
When Marty Kotis looked at his company’s monthly wireless bill, he found a stunning charge – for 2,500 text messages on a single staffer’s phone. There was more: Another staffer had 800, and a third, 700.
But Kotis, who owns a real estate development firm in Greensboro, N.C., didn’t reprimand his employees, although many of the messages were personal. Instead, he put it in perspective.
“The people that had the high text numbers are very good at their jobs,” said Kotis, president of Kotis Properties. “They worked weekends, extra hours. I had them do a lot of things for me outside of general work hours.”
Just a few years ago, owners were adjusting to workers spending time surfing the Internet. Now, it’s texting friends or communicating via Facebook or Twitter. And bosses are learning that as long as the work is getting done, it makes sense to let employees take high-tech breaks.
As Kotis pointed out, many staffers are also working outside of business hours. “There is blending of work and personal time going on,” he said, and so it’s fair for employees to take some time during the work day for personal matters.
He said of his own company, “we give them things like work cell phones and ask them to carry them at 8 at night to take calls.”
Clamping down on texting, Twitter and the like can give your workplace an unpleasant atmosphere – something that could hurt productivity and make it hard to retain good employees, especially as the economy improves.
“You have to give an environment where people want to be,” said Damian Bazadona, owner of Situation Interactive, a New York-based marketing firm. He also noted there’s a quid-pro-quo in many businesses – the same people who are texting are often eating lunch at their desks.
Both Kotis and Bazadona noted that activities such as texting and using Facebook and Twitter are more likely to be done by younger staffers, who use these tools to communicate with the entire world. That means they’re probably using those communication channels for work, too. Kotis said one of his employees “pretty much did a deal through text.”
