Hiding in Plain Sight: How Employees Are Using Company Resources to Slack Off Without Raising Any Eyebrows

Reddit is described as the “front page” of the Internet. It is an entertainment, social networking and news website where members can submit content, such as text posts, pictures or direct links. It is essentially an online bulletin board system. It’s hugely popular. It’s the birthplace of a lot of content that eventually goes viral after later being picked up by BuzzFeed, Twitter or Facebook. It’s also extraordinarily easy to get lost on the site for HOURS scrolling through links, photos and comments.  In a nutshell, the website can essentially torpedo your employees’ productivity from the very moment they sit down in the morning. We’ve got some bad news for employers. A “Redditer” recently posted an entry describing new software that allows employees to access the site in plain view of supervisors and management. How? It lays out the content in a way that looks like the employee is working on Microsoft Outlook. Pretty clever. But what about those who are not part of the Reddit community, yet still want to waste some time? Check out PC World’s “10 Tools for Stealthy Slacking off at Work.”  This is one of many articles on the subject. Here’s the takeaway:  We’re all human. We need a break from time to time. But there are also new and innovative ways that make it much easier to slack off without raising any eyebrows. Employers should be aware of this and address productivity issues accordingly.

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• productivity