Facebook Inside Your Business: Big Deal, or No Big Deal?

Where do you hide something so no one can see it?

Right in broad daylight where no one would look.

Carl is the CEO of a Fortune 1000 Company. He and several other executives answered my survey regarding the effect of Facebook in their businesses.

It was quite the eye-opener.

And the survey answers were something on the order of fighting a drug cartel. I know. Probably a bit extreme.

But actually not.

If you are reading this chances are you have checked or used your personal Facebook Account while at work. No big deal, right?

Actually the answer to that are your own production numbers.

If your production is kicking-ass and you’re making your numbers then checking your personal Facebook feed is no big deal.

But 9-10 who answered my survey said unequivocally it was costing their company production and growth.

Did I say drug cartel?

Most of those surveyed found that even when their employees or staff were told not to check their Facebook accounts while on company time, they did it anyway. And when CEO’s laid down company policies, well, the employees or staff did what the drug cartels do:

They ignored whatever you said and continued to do what they wanted to do right on your own home turf. Like right in front of you on their laptop while they are amped up on Red Bull “finishing” that RFP for your key client.

You walk in. Greg’s in his office early. He’s bearing down on his laptop as his hands fly across the keyboard. You ask, “How’s the proposal coming along Greg?” Greg’s looking at a picture of his girlfriend dancing on top of a bar in her nylons. Her dress is hitched up just high enough that you-wonder-where-that-night went. And...scoring a 87 Likes before anyone’s punched in at work.

“Just getting the final details done, and we’re good to go,” Greg replies.

If you ban it, they will find a way to get around it. Ask Pablo Escobar.

Now if it seems I’m being a bit over the top, well, to be honest there’s really nothing quite as “over the top” as what you will find going on behind the curtain with everyone from the CEO to the Receptionist when it comes to smuggling in their Facebook Fix.

And if you are anyone who is in any strata of managing others, you need to get up to speed on how Harry Houdini gets his fix at work.

In my book: Facebreak: The Hidden Side of How Texting, Liking, and Stalking Impacts Our Relationships, you will find out about the “Invisible Line” that people are crossing every minute of the day while at work or at home. It’s all innocuous until you start to realize that the only real deterrent to sales is...hello...when someone isn’t selling. Or when you check in with Megan your Project Manager and she’s holding up her finger to signal “wait just a sec’ because she’s in ogling pics of Jason the IT guy on Facebook, and not actually confirming product delivery for your client.

It’s no big deal, right?

Actually, it really isn’t a big deal who or what people are doing on their cell phones or laptops. What is a big deal is that the culture within your company is being woven with a fabric of conduct that is misleading.

Dancing girlfriends and Jason’s abs are not the problem.

It’s the fact that Greg or Megan appear to be doing something when they are not. They also tell you they are doing something when they are not. And the real absurdity is when you yourself observe what you think they are doing, but in truth you are being hoodwinked.

This isn’t a business. This is America’s Got Talent. And the magic trick isn’t really magic. It’s left-over high school DNA from faking our absence slip to hand into our teacher when we weren’t really sick. We were pushing back Buds on the beach.

When you step back and just confront this you will see that this continuously regurgitated line about transparency and authenticity has become corrupted.

That’s where you are losing money and profitability.

If you truly don’t know whether your sales rep is answering a text from a client or sexting his girlfriend, then you don’t need an Executive Meeting to go over Sales Quotas.

You need a meeting to get everyone off the False Train.

And yea. I’d say that’s a big deal.