While some companies embrace the use of Facebook, even for  work-related collaboration purposes, other companies are  setting  up firewalls to ban the use of Facebook in the workplace.

 In an episode of, “For Immediate Release,” Shel Holtz  speaks with  CEO and President of Serena Software, Jeremy Burton about  Serena “Facebook Fridays.”

Every Friday, the company allots an hour of time for employees to spend solely on Facebook. Before the company implemented the program, about 30% of employees already had active Facebook accounts. Virtual attendance of “Facebook Friday” isn’t required, though employees are encouraged to take advantage of this social media usage time. 

Burton believes Facebook brings people together and makes up for the “human” communication that’s lost through channels such as email, text messaging and content management systems lack. However, Facebook also allows employees to interact with people on all levels of the company, breaking down hierarchal barriers to upper level management.

Facebook brings the subculture that exists within any organization offline to the virtual realm. Burton compares Facebook to sitting at Starbucks; we watch people go by and interact with others. Based on watching conversations between people in this subculture, we learn something about them or are, therefore, more inclined to strike up conversations.

Facebook is comparable to the “water cooler” within the organization where corporate gossip and personal or professional anecdotes are passed along. Facebook just takes water cooler relationships and cements them online.

However, critics of corporate Facebook argue that it reduces productivity, slows down bandwidth, compromises corporate professionalism and causes danger to security. Do employees share too much about their personal lives on Facebook? Will they spend too much time and money people-watching on this “cyber Starbucks?”

Organizations need to realize that no matter if they ban or embrace Facebook, employees will find a way to use it, and it will ultimately affect the organization in some way. The same information that gets passed through the grapevine at the water cooler, and then home to the dinner table or to happy hour, now has the possibility to circulate on Facebook as well.