Skype in the workplace
Discussion
This is probably more of a rant than a question, but here goes.
I work for an international company with almost 400 employees globally, one of their policies is that we must have Skype installed and be signed in at all times.
I never had a problem with this at first, but I soon found it counterproductive. I find I receive too many stupid questions or comments that people wouldn’t ask face to face or ask in an email, everything is far too informal and I find it affects my performance.
So I uninstalled Skype, but soon got told to by my manager reinstall it and sign back in. I argued my point but was just told “it is company policy”.
Having been forced to reinstall it I decided to link my Facebook account to Skype (counterproductive I admit but if you can’t beat em join em), I also set my profile picture of the Star of David. Cue a week later I’m told by my manager to remove the picture because someone in our UAE office has complained.
I argued they were being anti-Semitic but was then told I could not use offensive pictures. Wound up I changed it to a picture of Nigel Farage, again I got called in to remove it was told to stop provoking people.
I enjoy my job and I like my colleagues as individual people, just not on Skype. Although as you can see from my other thread I am probably going to change jobs.
Marks out of 10?
I work for an international company with almost 400 employees globally, one of their policies is that we must have Skype installed and be signed in at all times.
I never had a problem with this at first, but I soon found it counterproductive. I find I receive too many stupid questions or comments that people wouldn’t ask face to face or ask in an email, everything is far too informal and I find it affects my performance.
So I uninstalled Skype, but soon got told to by my manager reinstall it and sign back in. I argued my point but was just told “it is company policy”.
Having been forced to reinstall it I decided to link my Facebook account to Skype (counterproductive I admit but if you can’t beat em join em), I also set my profile picture of the Star of David. Cue a week later I’m told by my manager to remove the picture because someone in our UAE office has complained.
I argued they were being anti-Semitic but was then told I could not use offensive pictures. Wound up I changed it to a picture of Nigel Farage, again I got called in to remove it was told to stop provoking people.
I enjoy my job and I like my colleagues as individual people, just not on Skype. Although as you can see from my other thread I am probably going to change jobs.
Marks out of 10?
1. Turn off sounds, flashing things etc. and don't look at the messages immediatly, maybe once every 15/20/30 odd minutes. Anything urgent then they can phone.
2. Persist with telling management it's counter productive. By the sounds of it, will fall on deaf ears.
3. Live with it even though it's stupid.
4. Get a new job.
I'd probably go with 3 or 4.
2. Persist with telling management it's counter productive. By the sounds of it, will fall on deaf ears.
3. Live with it even though it's stupid.
4. Get a new job.
I'd probably go with 3 or 4.
Weird, we all used to run Skype on our company PCs as we were expat and it saved a fortune on calls home. Due to the security risk that Skype poses, we were told that if didn't remove Skype then we could/would be dismissed. Seemingly Skype provides a back-door entry through the firewalls that can/may be exploited.
Perhaps you should research this and present Skype as a security risk to your management.
Perhaps you should research this and present Skype as a security risk to your management.
Munter said:
Just set yourself as busy and ignore messages....no?
This, we use Office communicator for the same purpose, and like you I hate it, so have it set to "away" constantly as well as a note under my name "stating that I will likely not reply, so contact me via e-mail for a response", seems to work as pretty much nobody now bothers to contact me via it.1 - Learn how to use the settings to set "do not disturb"-type status. Use them sensibly.
2 - Be very wary of your company's policy on defamatory or inflammatory remarks, offensive behaviour, etc. It'll be part of your contract.
(Note to keyboard warriors - I am making no comments as to the OP's conduct, beliefs, etc. I'm trying to save him from being fired.)
3 - If you don't like your company's policy, and can't find a way to live with it or work round it, time to move on before that decision is made for you.
Regardless of the rights and wrongs, if one person out of several hundred is making an issue of this, they will be perceived to be the problem.
2 - Be very wary of your company's policy on defamatory or inflammatory remarks, offensive behaviour, etc. It'll be part of your contract.
(Note to keyboard warriors - I am making no comments as to the OP's conduct, beliefs, etc. I'm trying to save him from being fired.)
3 - If you don't like your company's policy, and can't find a way to live with it or work round it, time to move on before that decision is made for you.
Regardless of the rights and wrongs, if one person out of several hundred is making an issue of this, they will be perceived to be the problem.
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