I remember well the hysteria around Internet use in the workplace. Back in the mid-nineties, it suddenly became possible for employees to access the newly invented World Wide Web from their computers at work, and managers in many companies were mortified: people might (perish the thought!) use company assets for non-business use, and in doing so waste work time!

Back then, we saw many knee-jerk reactions in the corporate world. Memos would be issued asserting that no one may access the net without written manager approval, based on “business need”; anyone who violated this wise edict would be severely punished! Of course, the major business need of getting acquainted with an incredible innovation that would revolutionize every business in a few years was not appreciated by the short sighted. Fortunately not everyone was that short sighted, and with time reality smacked the remainder in the face, and now web access is a given.

At the time I was involved in a discussion group where people dealing with these issues could exchange views. I particularly remember a comment by a professor who reacted to the concern of some participants that their employees will stop working if given web access. He wrote “employees who abuse this access and don’t do their jobs are just like employees who steal paperclips in the office to take home; I expect your companies know how to deal with that”. Wise words, which I put to good use when, having convinced my company to allow free web usage, I had to step in and handle cases of abuse. A criminal is a criminal; the majority of employees are responsible adults and should not be treated like children just to foil a few slackers.

I was reminded of this old argument when a student I was coaching submitted the results of a small survey she’d administered to Gen Y workers to characterize workplace policies around personal use of Facebook during work hours. She found an interesting gap between employers and employees. 47% of respondents’ workplaces had a policy forbidding such use entirely; 10% permitted unlimited use; only 10% allowed personal use during work hours as long as it did not interfere with work (the remaining 33% had no policy in place at all). In other words, of those employers that did have a policy, 70% were totally forbidding, 15% were totally permissive, and only 15% hit on the sensible, balanced, desirable solution: trust your employees to do what’s right. Let them enjoy a little social networking while putting the interest of the job first – without being policed.

Meanwhile, the employees surveyed were asked what they think the policy ought to be; 77% advocated the sensible policy stated above, while only 3% advocated unlimited use (13% were for permitting use after formal work hours, and 10% were in favor of a total ban). In other words, 77% of employees had the wisdom and the restraint to support a policy that balances work and personal needs, putting the work duties first; only 15% of employer policies reflected such wisdom. Hmmm…

The good news, at any rate, is that just as with the Internet, Facebook is here to stay, and the new Gen Y cohort of employees will bring it into the workplace whether or not management likes it. Hopefully – and I am optimistic here – managers will realize before long that employees who can be trusted around paperclips can be trusted around Facebook too. The above data point shows that they can.