Inc.com’s article Seven Out of 10 Employees Admit to Abusing Office Computers, Phones relays some stats from a recent Harris Interactive survey.
Nearly 72 percent of workers ages 18 to 24 said they check personal e-mail accounts at work (compared to 61 percent of the general population), and 77 percent are using the Internet personally (compared to 69 percent of workers overall), the survey says. Seventy-one percent of the young respondents said they maintain some sort of personal website. Personal blogs are the most popular among young workers, while 52 percent use networking accounts, such as MySpace or Facebook. Thirteen percent of workers 18 to 24 have an online dating account that they use at work, survey results show.
Is there any doubt that the younger generation is “wired?” With the ubiquitous nature of electronic monitoring, I am somewhat surprised that Gen Y dabbles in Facebook and online dating sites at work.
And there is this common caveat for young workers:
“We’ve seen instances where current or potential employers reviewed content of personal websites, and held employees accountable in different ways for what they post,” Kopit said. “Young people tend to live lives very openly online, which may have unintended repercussions when it comes to their employment.”
We google candidate names along with other techniques for checking their digital dirt. What we sometimes kick up never ceases to amaze me.