I Love Facebook

by Linda Watson-Brown - 08:42 on 02 September 2009

 

I’m with Theo on this one – and I’m not going to spoil the gooey feeling of agreeing with another human being by inserting lots of rubbish Dragon’s Den ‘jokes.’ Apparently, Mr Paphitis has ‘banned’ his staff from using Facebook et al during working hours. This is not as draconian as it sounds (ooh, couldn’t help myself). As more and more surveys reveal that every worker in the country is spending twenty five hours a day (or something like that) on social networking sites, someone has finally woken up to the fact that this is not a good idea. In a similar fashion, someone else will soon work out that surveys which prove the obvious are not terribly useful either. However, I am pleased with this one.
 
As someone who works pretty much exclusively from home, I am constantly surprised by how much non-working other people do. I’m not perfect (almost though), and I do admit to often thinking that the loo needs cleaned or my knickers folded and categorised rather than another chapter be written, but, almost every morning, I get emails from friends that have been sent pretty much as soon as they get into their various offices containing ‘jokes’ that I simply have to be sent immediately.
 
Here are some things that no research project needs to prove as I know them already:
 
1        these ‘jokes’ are NEVER funny.
2        they are invariably American which means that the spelling, Mom references, and cuteness makes me want to scream/pull my hair out/barf before I’ve even got the first bar of Dairy Milk of the day down my throat.
3        there is always one about God – which leads me to the final point.
4        the people who send me these emails clearly do not know me as these missives are so far from my sense of humour as to be almost funny in themselves.
 
So, if Theo has indeed clamped down on staff surfing, Facebooking, doing all sorts of social stuff in his time, then good for him – especially the Facebook aspect. Like the rest of civilisation, I have tried Facebook – thankfully, I have forgotten my password so never feel even tempted to go in any more, but those lost days spent in that nether region of linguistic hell still bring me out in a cold sweat. I do not like text speak, I do not like bad spelling, I do not like excesses of poor grammar. I particularly do not like when ‘friends’ say really stupid stuff on their sites that I feel link me to mental dimness simply by vague online association (if anyone ever does look at my page – which I don’t – they will see that, if you can be judged by the friends you hold on those creations, I am the type of person who is a z-list celeb-loving, vigilante thicko who can barely right there owen nayme lol).
 
Employers have rights and responsibilities – but so do employees.  When I get my daily stream of forwarded emails and round robin ‘funnies’, I can’t help but notice how many of them have addresses in there that are public bodies.  It’s the ultimate insult – I am, in effect, paying these people to send me rubbish.
 
If I sound miserable, it’s because I am – but, actually, with this particular issue, I’ve got every right to be.  And now that somebody that matters – i.e. Theo off the telly – has said it too, I can feel a bit better about it. What a lovely start to the day.

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Contact Linda at l.wb@stampless.co.uk