Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 8:35 AM PT

 

Should Companies Ban YouTube?

Now that online video has made lunchtime the new prime time, companies fear a drop in productivity as they watch their bandwidth costs soar. So they’re taking matters into their own hands, according to The Wall Street Journal, and blocking sites like YouTube. But is dropping the hammer really the best option?

Since we write a blog covering online video, we’re a little biased — power to the people! Set Tay Zonday free! Online video is a great way for workers to kill five minutes in between soul-crushing meetings and memos. But companies trying to compete and keep costs down might not share our sentiment. So we’re turning the question over to you, the potentially-oppressed masses. Take part in our poll and if you have a story about boneheaded bosses blocking your online video fun, share it in our comments section.

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Topic: Online Video

Comments (7)

  • i wish there was a selection in the poll for those that DO work in web video… something like: Option 4 “Hell No… this Youtube doohickey is my public library…” or whatever.

    kamRA — 8:48 AM on March 4, 2008 Reply

  • I don’t know what industry these people work in, but if I couldn’t see YouTube at work it would completely eff up my ability to do my job…

    zeitgeiber — 9:09 AM on March 4, 2008 Reply

  • Do content sites like YouTube lower productivity? Maybe, maybe not.

    But would you rather that the lower productivity come from employees getting together to watch a funny video and share a laugh, OR getting together to complain that they can’t and figuring out and sharing ways to circumvent the block.

    Happy Employees are more productive than Unhappy Employees.

    Of course, with all things there is a limit, and a balance to be achieved, and every company must make that decision on their own for their own circumstances.

    John — 9:15 AM on March 4, 2008 Reply

  • When production drops, companies try to find out why. The trust is that if youtube was blocked, productivity would still drop from other avenues. No one spends their entire day working.

    virginian9000 — 9:37 AM on March 4, 2008 Reply

  • You don’t really have to “block” online video…. doing something like that may be beyond the means of many businesses.

    All you really have to do is remove the sound card of the computer. Online video usually becomes very useless without sound.

    – Charles Iliya Krempeaux
    http://changelog.ca/

    Charles Iliya Krempeaux — 11:03 PM on March 4, 2008 Reply

  • Everything depends on point of view. For me YouTube is useful.

    Katalog Stron — 8:53 AM on March 5, 2008 Reply

  • I work in development for a new media platform, so watching online videos is my job. And Scrabulous provides valuable… err… power to the people!

    Ben — 9:56 AM on March 5, 2008 Reply

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