I was planning for a Memorial Day, warm weather topic on appropriate work attire. I guess that will have to wait. sigh. Here is another topic that I hope can stimulate our conversation.
Our students have been immersed in social media for much of their lives. Often this can bleed into their jobs as student employees. What sort of issues have you dealt with regarding student employees and social media? Do you have any work rules that prohibit texting, surfing the Internet, or accessing Facebook during work hours? Have student conflicts arisen in the workplace that are the result of social media use away from work? If so, how did you deal with this? If your department has developed a written policy regarding social media, has this helped your student workers stay more focused on their job duties?
Please share your experiences in this area.
Our department has a social media presence, so our official rule is that they can only use Facebook & Twitter (& internet surfing) for work promotional purposes. We also have a written ‘no homework’ policy. Of course, this is not always followed. I let it slide a little, sometime ask “do you need something to do?”, bring it up in a staff meeting if it is several people, or I specifically talk to a student reminding them about the policy and asking if everything is going okay. It usually results in them saying they didn’t have anything to do, so I try to work with them for them to identify more tasks to do on shift.
Moving into our ‘no homework policy’ was decided with buy-in from the student workers at the time and has been a great decision for our department.
Another way we keep them focused is that they submit a ‘worklog’ at the end of each shift listing the tasks they completed. People know when their log is too short.
Are there best practices out there that answer this question posed in Chris Lonigan’s original posting: “Have student conflicts arisen in the workplace that are the result of social media use away from work? If so, how did you deal with this?”
I’m wondering about a new realm of social skills necessary to manage the bold statements often made through social media postings that don’t consider the impact of the words on the receiver. Some say that technology is growing a culture of clear and bold thinkers… good stuff, when combined with a consideration of the impact of the words shared. Thoughts?
We have difficulties controlling the texting and fb checking that our students do while at work. They don’t seem to bat an eye at answering texts. We are uncertain as to what our expectations should be. Is this a generational thing that should be accepted? We feel we aren’t training our students what work life is like in the real world (i.e. a company pays for your time, therefore they ‘own’ your time). Any thoughts would be appreciated.
In response to Brenda’s post. It is an interesting dilemma to be in. The students are responsive to texting and other forms of social media, so how do we optimize their interest while focusing their efforts on the work they are being hired to do? How does our thinking need to change around areas of interest to the Millennial Generation in the areas of: 1) flexibility in the workplace, with sufficient and clear objectives that will assure the students have a clear path to measure their progress in completing tasks and meeting deadlines; 2) quality feedback that is timely, specific, and clearly communicated, and where possible, communicated electronically, etc…
For me the important issue is helping student employees understand the boundaries between personal and professional life. Unless stated otherwise (some jobs might allow students to do homework while sitting at a reception desk, for example), employees are paid to carry out work tasks and responsibilities and are not free to engage in personal activities except during break periods. While occasionally making a personal phone call or text generally is acceptable, these personal, non-job related activities may interfere with getting work done. As Pam has suggested, putting these guidelines and expectations in place (via orientation – both verbally and in written materials, or other work rules) and providing feedback and coaching and is helpful in teaching them about the personal/professional boundaries.