Most workers use social media at work but many know it hurts their productivity
According to a new report about social media and the workplace by Pew Research Center.
A new study paints a picture of the modern office as a place where many employees use social media regardless of how it impacts their work performance.
The study, conducted by Pew Research Center over the course of eight days in 2014, asked 2,003 American adults, including 795 who are currently employed on a full- or part-time basis, about the role social media plays in their work life.
The researchers found that for many workers, the boundaries surrounding social media use at work are often blurry, though many agreed it was a distraction.
And for some workers, social media caused them to judge their co-workers, feeling they know a little bit too much about them.
Everyone’s doing it
Even though relatively few workers must use social media for work-related purposes, the survey found that 77 percent of employees say they use social media at work, regardless of whether their employer has a policy against it.
Why? About a third of workers said they use social media at work to take a mental break from their job, while another third said they like to connect with friends or family members.
Others said they use social media to actually enhance their career, with about a quarter saying they use it to make or support professional connections and another 20 percent saying social media helped them get information to solve work problems.
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Some respondents also said they use social media to learn more about their co-workers, though younger workers were more likely to respond this way — 23 percent of workers ages 18 to 29, compared to just 12 percent of workers ages 30 to 49, and 9 percent of workers ages 50 to 64.
This digital snooping caused some workers (16 percent) to lower their professional opinion of their colleagues, while others (14 percent) said looking at co-workers’ social media presence actually raised their opinion of them.
A Catch-22?
The study found that a relatively modest share of workers said they’ve incorporated specific social media platforms into their day-to-day work lives, using platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to find new job opportunities or network. Over 78 percent of these workers said in these instances, social media helped their work life.
But even so, a significant portion of the same workers said social media was also a huge workplace distraction, with 56 percent agreeing social media distracted them from doing the work they needed to do.
It doesn’t look like social media will disappear from the workplace anytime soon, however.
When push came to shove, 56 percent of survey respondents using social media for work-related purposes said it ultimately helps their job performance.
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